Tears of Hate
by Gattarocurioso1992
Summary: She was there. Finally the time of her revenge had arrived. She was going to have it. Also others in the world, in society, wanted revenge. Revenge without mercy. Would they get swallowed by it, crying tears of hate, or they would get over it, and heal?
1. Chapter 1: The Capture

**Author's note:** M rating becouse of attempted rape and sexually explicit scenes in future chapters. Regarding the spells, the stupefy spll being called "Stupeficium" is not an error, but a choice I made becouse I like the italian version more.

 **PS:** Some reviewers have said that some characters in this fanfiction are at least partly OOC. yes, some of them are, especially Draco Malfoy, and it is a deliberate decision from my part,since it is my opinion that it is necessary for certain pairings to work and for this story to go as I want it to go.

Chapter One : The Capture

Hermione had waited for days - days full of maniacally detailed preparation. Now that she was ready, she would be able to get through the wards undetected. She could find the monster she had once thought redeemable, get the truth from him, and get her revenge.

Yes, revenge, not justice.

Everyone thought Hermione was still in Australia looking for her parents, even Ron and Harry. And she had gone to Sydney to find them, nearly a year ago. Instead of finding Albert and Jeanette, she found a burned down building, and neighbors that have moved on from the British couple that had lived there for only a few months.

After her swift return to England (what was the point in staying in Australia?), she had been pursuing the Death Eaters that had avoided capture or Azkaban for the past year, hoping to find the ones responsible for her parents' deaths. She had already captured six of them for interrogation. After asking her questions, they had been delivered anonymously to the Ministry, where they had been put on trial. Trials that would send them to either Azkaban for a life sentence or to the executioner. The first five didn't know anything, veritaserum proved it to her. The last one though… he knew, and he told her of the one responsible for her parents' deaths.

It was Draco Malfoy.

Hermione's thoughts were full of hatred as she finished the final enchantment to make her pass through the wards undetected. For this last Death Eater, Draco Malfoy, she would not give him to the Ministry, no, she would make him confess and then she would kill him herself, hoping that she won't feel remorse for taking a life to revenge her parents.

Inside the Manor, Draco Malfoy was in the library reorganizing the last set of potions books he had bought. Recently, he had been studying like a madman, working on a locating potion . A project that, if it went well, would not add to his already full vaults, but would give his conscience relief. That relief would lessen the guilt he had carried for the last year and a half - since the end of the war. The war, that damn horrifying war, had only one good consequence in his mind, it allowed him to escape the brainwashing of his upbringing, that pureblood superiority bullshit. He still was arrogant, sarcastic, and witty, but those were the only traits that remained of the Draco Malfoy from before the war. Narcissa, who had been sentenced to 5 years house arrest, had also changed her outlook on blood superiority, while his father… well he didn't know what his father thought anymore, and with his lifelong sentence in Azkaban, it didn't matter. Draco believed that everything that happened to him during the war was his father's fault; Lucius had done many terrible things in his life and it was damn good he was finally paying for them.

Finished putting away the books, Draco went to a seat near one of the large windows in the library to relax , his gaze fell on yesterday's Daily Prophet article, the headline proclaimed there was news of the last Death Eater who had been deposited in the Ministry Atrium anonymously by a "Hunter of Justice". Draco, like much of wizarding Britain, had been rather curious about the identity of this hunter. Who had the ability to find and capture all the Death Eaters that had gone into hiding, those that had successfully avoided the Aurors? Draco skimmed the article, curious about the latest capture, and he froze. It couldn't be, it was HIS name, the name of the criminal he had travelled with to Australia to kill Hermione Granger's parents.

Voldemort had ensured Granger's parents were watched before they even left for Australia, so when they settled in Sidney and assumed safe, he decided it was time to kill them to send a message. As punishment for Lucius' failure in the Department of Mysteries, and his own failure to kill Dumbledore, Draco had been sent with a seasoned Death Eater to 'take care' of them. When he and Ivan Dolohov (a cousin of Antonin) portkeyed on to the Granger's lawn in Sydney, Draco had already decided to stop Dolohov. While he could live with the guilt of not having accepted Dumbledore's offer, or of not having had the courage to refuse to kill the muggle Voldemort had put in front of him to prove his loyalty, he would not be able to live another day with his conscience if he did not try to stop this.

So he waited until Dolohov opened the front door with a whispered "Alohomora", positioned himself behind him and shouted "Stupeficium!". As Dolohov fell to the floor, stunned, Draco pushed him inside the entryway, and went looking for the Grangers. He found them sleeping upstairs. To keep them from being found by Death Eaters again, he modified their appearance with four different glamour spells each, and went on putting within them the unstoppable wish to move (to a country besides Great Britain), he didn't want to plant a specific country in their minds, and know where they had gone. If Voldemort found out what he had done, Draco would die, and so would the Grangers.

Draco returned to Dolohov, and modified his memory so he remembered fulfilling their mission; watching Draco Avada both of Granger's parents. Then Draco awakened Dolohov and both of them grabbed the portkey, returning to England, back to the Manor.

Draco was reliving the events of that day, staring out the window in the Manor library, when he felt a noise outside the room. He got up from the chair and went into the hallway to investigate, assuming it was his loyal house elf.

"Winky, are you still trying to cook that Indian recipe using magic WITHOUT checking the potions I gave you for it?!" he said calling his house elf.

"Winky!" He called again when there was no answer, then he heard a "Stupeficium!" behind him, and all went black.

Hermione smiled triumphantly; she had managed to get through the Manor's wards, and find the bastard in his giant house without being discovered. It had been a piece of cake to bait him out of the library and stun him. What he said concerned her though, she hadn't expected him to have anyone besides Narcissa in the house with him. She had to hurry and get him out of the Manor to her hiding place before Winky found them. Facing a loyal house elf in a magic duel was not what she had in mind or what she had prepared for. She mentally scolded herself, she hadn't thought of the possibility of house elves stopping her! She was so used to considering them as her allies, as those she fought to free from abuse and slavery, that she had not considered the possibility of them being an obstacle in her mission.

Hindsight was 20/20, but it would only slow her down to ruminate on the holes she found in her plan while she was in the middle of the mission.

With a "Petrificus Totalus", Malfoy was bound even if he woke from her stun, and she began to move him with a levitation charm back towards her exit. Hermione frantically stopped and hid herself and Draco's body in a room when she heard an elf voice call out.

"Master Draco! Master Draco! You called for Winky?! Winky managed to finish the recipe! Please, Master Draco come with Winky to taste it!" Hermione stayed hidden, extremely nervous as she tried to make as little noise as possible, hardly daring to breathe. Winky's voice moved further and further away until it ceased completely, and Hermione exhaled a sigh of relief and continued her stealthy walk out of the Manor with Draco floating behind her. After a few more very tense minutes, she finally was outside the Manor's wards.

Draco opened his eyes, awakening as the stunning spell wore off,"Stupeficium" always had a minor effect on him compared to other wizards. The first thing he saw was the clouded sky, had he laid down outside? He wondered where he was, but before he could turn his head, he heard a familiar voice shout "Si-silencio!". He couldn't speak, but he could still see, and with a mixture of horror and amusement, he saw Hermione Granger's face enter his view.

"Karma is a bitch, don't you think, Malfoy? What goes around comes around. You killed my parents with that disgusting Death Eater friend of yours, and now I'm here to get my revenge. I will make you talk, I will make you confess, and then I will kill you.

"No one will ever find your Death Eater body, I will make sure of it. Don't worry, I'm not like you, I won't burn your dead body down in your house like you did to my parents after torturing them. Unlike you, I have mercy, which is more than you deserve. I don't enjoy killing like you and your little friends did, but I'm not going to regret what I'm about to do."

Draco was going through a very odd mix of emotions running through him as he listened Granger's speech; shock, horror and understanding mixed with a little bit of awe. It was obvious that she was the "Hunter of Justice" from the Daily Prophet (Huntress, apparently), able to find the missing Death Eaters. She's the one that interrogated Edward Dolohov and found out his modified events of their night in Australia. She thought Draco was responsible for the death of her parents. He was scared for a moment, thinking he was going to die, until she said that she was going to "make him confess", after that he relaxed.

Granger would not kill him. If she made him confess, even with Veritaserum (he would expect no less from her), she would simply find out the truth and then she would release him, probably apologizing endlessly for her mistake. He smirked at the thought, for once the know-it-all did not, in fact, know anything at all. While he did not know it all either, necessarily, since he didn't know which country her parents had ended up in, he was close to it. He still needed a few days to finalize the locator potion before he could add the last ingredient, a drop of Granger's blood. By coming to find him herself, Hermione had spared him a trip to Australia to find , Draco thought, this project to lessen his guilt and ease his conscience was going to be much easier than he thought.

As he thought this, Hermione grabbed his arm and apparated them into a flat, her flat he supposed. After binding him to a chair, she took a flask out of her purse and instructed him, in a voice which left no room for disagreement, to "DRINK". He looked at her, surprised at how much she impressed him, and he truly understood how she had managed to keep herself and the others in the 'Golden Trio' safe throughout a war in a world she had only been a part of for 6 years. She was clearly the mind behind the 'Golden Trio', and with enough sheer determination to avoid capture for a year by the most powerful wizard in recent history. But this, pursuing, finding, and interrogating all those Death Eaters by herself, was amazing, reckless yes (he found himself angry at her for having risked her life like that, what if she had died and all of his work in finding her parents became pointless?), so perfectly Gryffindor and annoying and reckless, but amazing.

She was incredible, and very angry with him, hell, was she always was so beautiful? Even when she was angry and wanted to kill him, he couldn't help his attraction. What the hell was his problem? She was just as likely going to poison him as she was to give him Veritaserum, and he was thinking how attractive she was? Mentally shaking his head at the path his thoughts had taken, he opened his mouth and drank from the flask Hermione was holding in front of him. Now he would find out, he thought, would she poison him after what she thought he had done to her parents, or would she act the honorable Gryffindor and find out the truth first?


	2. Chapter 2: The Understanding

Chapter Two: The Understanding

"This is a modified version of Veritaserum. It will not only make you tell the truth, it will also make you feel pain if you try to hide any parts of it. In my opinion, you are in for a very bad hour before I kill you ferret. For old time's sake, I'd like to greet you properly before we begin.

After saying this in a voice that was both sweet and scarily cold, Hermione Granger strongly punched Draco in the face, making his nose bleed immediately. Draco groaned loudly saying with a rather scared expression "Da-damn it Granger, that was much worse than last time you hit me. P-please calm down, this is just aa misundersta… ahhh!" Hermione answered his request at "calm down" with another punch saying "CALM DOWN! You've always been horrible to me and everyone I cared about, you fucking KILLED my parents, burned them in their house and you ask me to fucking CALM DOWN!" She was shouting now, blind with fury and resentment. She tried to take deep breaths however, it wouldn't do to incapacitate him before she could finish her interrogation, and after a while, she spoke again to an increasingly terrified Draco "Now that I've greeted you properly, as you deserve, answer me ferret, how did you feel when you went to my parents with your Death Eater buddy Dolohov? Did you enjoy knowing that you were going to kill the parents of the mudblood you wished dead since our second year? I want to know everything you felt that night, everything you did. I want to hear you confess how much of a monster you are before I kill you!"

Hermione had started relatively calm, but in the end, she had escalated into shouting once again. Tears were beginning to fall from her eyes and Draco was unsure if what he was feeling was closer to fear or horror. He was scared, really scared, he was in pain and bleeding from the punches; he feared that with the high emotional stateshe was in, she might kill him before hearing him out or that, in her fury, she would refuse to believe him even after he confessed, believing her veritaserum flawed rather than believing him innocent. Draco was also horrified though, and somehow also concerned; he had never seen Hermione Granger lose her cool like that, ever. He had seen her screaming and crying in pain as his psychotic aunt tortured her, but he had never seen her so close to broken, so overwhelmed by rage and sorrow, that she was on the point of mentally breaking down. e could see it in her eyes that were just as filled with hate as they were with tears. He could see it in the way her hands shook as she pointed her wand at him. He began to wonder just how much sleep she had gotten the past few months since she became this 'Hunter of Justice', suspecting that it was very little, and that this lack of sleep had contributed significantly to her weakened emotional control. Draco put aside those thoughts for the moment, and began to answer to Hermione's original question.

"I felt horror, I didn't want your parents to die. I was barely able to bear the guilt for what happened with Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower, or for being a coward who couldn'trefuse when Voldemort ordered me to kill a bound and screaming muggle he put in front of me to kill to prove my loyalty, I could barely handle that guilt, and I knew I wouldn't have been able to bear the death of your parents on my conscience, which is why I saved them".

"Y-you did what? But how? I-it can't be true, you're lying, right? You are j-just trying to resist the veritaserum. You can't be saying the truth, or… or...can you?" Her last two words were barely a whisper, hiding a newborn hope she did not dare speak aloud. The anger and fury had suddenly disappeared from Hermione's trembling voice, only shock, disbelief, sorrow, and a small spark of hope remained.

"I obliviated Dolohov" Draco spoke, "I stunned him in front of your parent's home, then I went inside, where your parents were asleep in their bedroom. I glamoured their appearance and made them want to move, to anywhere else that wasn't Australia or Great Britain. I made sure they had the urge to burn down their house before they left. hen I went back to Dolohov, and modified his memory what you learned from him about your parents' death is what I planted there to protect me and them, not what actually happened. If you do not believe in me, Granger, believe in your know-it-all ability. I bet you already tested the veritaserum at least twice before giving it to me, it can't be not working. Granger... Hermione, please" Draco's voice softened becoming almost soothing "This is all a misunderstanding, your parents, most likely, aren't dead. They're alive somewhere, I would have told you after the war but everyone said you were in Australia, looking for them, I didn't know how to contact you. Please, lower your wand, release me, and we can figurethis out".

Hermione's hands were still shaking, with her wand still pointed up at Draco, unsure of what to do. She knew in her head that he must be right, the veritaserum couldn't be working badly, but her heart wasn't allowing her to believe; what if somehow, it was a trick, and by releasing him she would be missing her only chance at revenge? But when Draco called her by her first name, a first in the 8 years that she's known him,, and spoke in a soothing tone, another first, her resolve crumbled. She removed the binding spell on him and fell on her knees, letting her wand fall on the floor next to her. She was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally. . With her eyes still wet with unshed tears, she could only hope against hope that Draco Malfoy was telling the whole truth, not a version of the truth altered by memory spells. Her only wish was to see her hope confirmed, and that her parents were really alive.

Draco breathed a huge sigh of relief when he felt the bindings removed, he was alive. He almost couldn't believe it, when he had seen the blind fury on Hermione's face as she punched him a second time(second time today, third time if you counted the punch from third year) and had heard her speak with such rage, he had seriously thought it likely that his days were coming to a swift end. His heart was beating faster than after a quidditch match, his nose was still broken and bleeding, but his captor was in a far worse state than him, emotionally and mentally at least. He was a Malfoy, and Malfoys weren't stopped by a few punches, no matter if those punches were from Hermione Granger; he would have to add another nickname for her, he thought, she was not just an annoying know-it-all, she was a damn scary "hit-it-all".

Seeing Hermione collapsed on the floor, he knew that he could give her some comfort that she sorely needed. So he carefully approached her, andput his arms around her while speaking in as soothing of a voice as he could muster with a broken nose.

"It's true Granger, I wasn't lying. I didn't killed your parents, Dolohov told you only what I made him believe. I have been developing a potion over the last year to find where your parents have gone. It is almost finished actually, we can finish it together and then we can go find them, ok?" She nodded, still sobbing, while she let herself be held in Draco's arms releasing her overwhelming pent up emotions in the tears she was wetting his shirt with. After a few minutes she had fallen asleep.

Draco thought of what to do next; he had to inform Winky that he was safe, but he did not feel comfortable leaving Granger alone in her current state, he also wanted to wait and hear her story before telling Potter that she was here in England. Besides, if she was going to help him finish the potion, it would be better to finish it at the Manor, instead of moving the still-brewing potion and all of his ingredients and books. Which left one option, he would bring her with him to the Manor. She could sleep as long as she needed in a guest room near his so he could keep an eye on her. Using the same levitating spell she had used earlier, he brought her out of the apartment wards and apparated them in front of the Manor, entered and found a very frantically worried Winky greet him "Master DRACO! Master Draco, why did Master Draco disappear and not be telling Winky?! What happened to Master Draco?! Master Draco is bleeding! Winky helps!"

While Winky healed his nose, Draco summarized to her what had happened, glossing over the parts where Hermione had kidnapped him with the intention of killing him, and told her to bathe Hermione, get her clean clothes,and put her in a guest room beside his.

After Winky had taken Hermione, Draco decided he also wanted to go to sleep, he felt tired after the afternoon that he had, and it was late enough that he already missed dinner with Narcissa.. He didn't know he was not going to get much sleep that night.


	3. Chapter 3: Caretaking

Chapter Three: Caretaking

Narcissa Malfoy was annoyed, sure her masterful emotional control did not let her face show it, but she WAS annoyed. She again looked at the letter of refusal from the ministry, the third letter of refusal that she had received since her house arrest had begun. She had written the Ministry multiple times to grant her a day off from her house arrest to visit her niece, Nymphadora Black, and her newborn son Teddy. Of course they had visited her some time after the war, but she wanted to visit them too at Grimmauld Place, where they went to live after Harry Potter had asked them to, wanting his godson nearby. Yes, now Nymphadora and Teddy lived with Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley at Grimmauld Place. Narcissa wanted to visit them, she wanted to see again her old home, now apparently redecorated to appear much less cold and more welcoming. Narcissa decided to ease her frustration with a cup of tea in one of the living rooms, even if it was quite late, perhaps she would meet Draco and ask him how his locating potion project was going.

Ah the locating potion's project, a truly ingenious idea of Draco's. Narcissa felt somewhat responsible for what happened to the Grangers, and she approved of his desire to ease his guilt and find them, it would help her conscience as well. She also hoped that the Grangers daughter, Hermione, who was still in Australia looking for them, would be grateful toward the family and that her friendship would have helped the Malfoys restore their public image. Just as she was thinking this and drinking her tea (yes she had made it magically by herself without calling Winky), Narcissa was startled by a terrifying scream she heard coming from the guest quarters; it was a voice screaming for someone to stop. As she heard the voice after a few seconds Narcissa froze, "it can't be, I must be hallucinating from the frustration about the letter, it can't be", she said. But the voice continued screaming and Narcissa went towards the guest quarters, hoping with all herself to be wrong about the identity of that screaming voice, a voice whose screams had made her guilt grow every time she settled foot in that room, a room now totally redecorated and isolated but still it reminded her of that day, when a brave girls behaviour facing a terrifying torture made her understand the magnitude of the Malfoys wrongness about pureblood superiority.

Draco Malfoy had been hoping for a good night sleep, he had hoped for a good rest that would have washed away the stress of the day's events and make him awake for the following day to talk calmly with Granger about the project and about contacting Potter and her friends. No such luck, since apparently, as Granger had told him only a few hours ago, Karma was a bitch and seemed to have taken an interest to complicate his life. This Draco thought, along with shock and concern, when he was awakened that night from Granger terrifying screams, in which she begged someone(Bellatrix, Draco assumed) to stop hurting her since she did not know anything. "Oh shit, i should have thought about the possibility of nightmares when I saw her in that state at her place" Draco thought as he rushed to Hermione's room and found her sitting on the bed with her back toward the wall and the arms around her face, alternating screams to uncontrollable sobs. He went to her trying to reach her through her terror, putting his hands on her shoulders, saying firmly "Granger wake up! it's alright, she is dead, this is a nightmare Granger wake up!", he also tried to shake her but she began screaming even louder than before. Draco then sighed, removed her arms from her chest and pulled her in an embrace, holding her tight as he moved his hands in soothing circles around her back and gently but firmly murmured soothing words to her ear, this time calling her by her name. "shh it is over, Hermione it's alright, she is dead, you are safe, she can't hurt you anymore, Hermione it's Draco, you are ok she died and you survived, you were stronger than her and you are still now, she can't hurt you anymore, you are ok, you are ok…"

Slowly, Hermione's screaming lessened until only the sobs remained, she had her tearful face buried on Draco's chest whose pajama she relentlessly kept wetting with tears, then after more than 10 minutes of sobs, she calmed and her dreams drifted away from the nightmares they were used to, going about the vision of a soothing voice telling her of her strength, of how she had been stronger than Bellatrix and of how all was now going to be alright.

"How?" Narcissa's shocked question made Draco, still holding Hermione in his arms, turn his head towards his mother who had been standing there, frozen, since Hermione's screams had began to lessen, and he said quietly "She kidnapped me and made me drink veritaserum, she had interrogated Dolohov and so she believed I had killed her parents, after I told her the truth I managed to convince her to release me, she then had an emotional break down and fell asleep, so I decided to bring her back here and talk to her tomorrow, I had not thought about the possibility of nightmares. Mother, she is the anonymous hunter that went around capturing death eaters in the last year and a half, it's her, she has been looking for the responsibles of her parents death"

To say that Narcissa was shocked would have been quite the understatement, she had been horrified to find out she had been right about the identity of the screaming voice, the despair and pain of Hermione's screams had cut deep through her soul, making her guilt emerge again with a vengeance. Another surprise for Narcissa however, a pleasant one, had been to find her son comforting the young woman, gently turning her away from her nightmares. When Hermione's sobs had disappeared and she had completely calmed, Narcissa's mind had already began to devise her plan for the Granger girl. Yes, she thought, perhaps it would have been possible to achieve three different goals at one time: easing her guilt regarding the Grangers, setting Draco up with a famous and powerful witch, and restoring considerably the Malfoy's public image. With this thoughts in mind Narcissa spoke to Draco "I understand Draco, from what you just told me, that Hermione Granger here has probably been by herself for an year and a half, since the end of the war, dealing by herself with the traumas of the war, of her torture in our house, of what happened to the young Weasley boy, and of her belief that the parents she had so drastically tried to protect had died. This means her emotional and mental state is very fragile at the moment, very vulnerable, among other things, to nightmares." "Yes mother, but what are you trying to suggest by saying this?" Draco said. Narcissa answered with a calm, collected, and determined no-argument voice "I am suggesting that since probably if we, if you, leave her to sleep here alone in a while her nightmares will begin once again and the result will be her passing an horrible night, and us not getting any sleep. So I SUGGEST" Narcissa's tone spoke volumes on how she said "suggest" but meant "pretend", "I suggest that you sleep with her, at least for tonight, but probably for the foreseeable future, to keep her away from her nightmares, she needs someone to care for her and help her through her ordeal, she is here in our house, many of the causes of her current emotional state are at least partly our fault, so we have a responsibility to help her, don't you agree Draco, wasn't this the reason of your whole locating potion project after all?"

Draco Malfoy was speechless, "Merlin! my mother must have began drinking firewhisky at night without my knowledge" he thought, then after he recovered from the shock of his mother's request, he answered "Mother, perhaps you are forgetting a little but fundamental detail, she hates me! I treated her and her friends horribly for most of the time she has known me, I think that precisely because her ordeal is in part my fault I am not a good candidate for what you are suggesting, I will fetch her a dreamless potion for tonight and tomorrow I will try to convince her to contact Potter and her friends that will care for her while I finish the proj..." "You will do no such thing Draco dear" - Narcissa said interrupting Draco - "She hated you, but I am convinced that NOW, knowing your part in rescuing her parents from Dolohov and your project to find them, and considering your behaviour towards her since yesterday, she won't hate you anymore, not even a bit. I think what she will feel tomorrow towards you will be gratitude mixed with guilt of having kidnapped you. So I think you are a good candidate for this, more so than her friends who she will be reluctant to go to because of her lying to them all this time, having made them believe to be in Australia for over a year"

Draco was speechless once again, this time because he had to admit that his mother had a point, he was probably the most reasonable choice for this given the circumstances, he did not like it though, because he was not looking forward to the glare and possible punch Grang-Hermione he corrected himself, being basically her caretaker made odd to still call her with a surname, that Hermione would have given him the following morning seeing him beside her in bed. Also he was not looking forward to the fear of being inadequate at the task, and he was certainly not looking forward to the frustration he would surely feel in having a sexy witch like her so near every night and not being able to make anything sexual with her. However, regardless of how he liked or disliked this, his mother was right, and so sighing deeply he answered her "Very well, as much as I may not feel great about this, you are probably right. I will stay with her at least for tonight then and tomorrow I will try to convince her to make this, us sleeping together, a… "- Draco hesitated - "permanent arrangement until she is better".

Narcissa smiled sweetly, like a snake would smile, the first part had been easy, the following days she would try to enact the second part of her plan, but for now all went well, "I am glad that you agree Draco, I am going to bed now, I hope you will take good care of our guest then, goodnight".

His mother left the room leaving Draco perplexed and worried, he knew his mother had also something else on her mind in suggesting this, he could feel it and he could also suspect what it was, but he was too tired for thinking about it, so he looked at Hermione, still sleeping in his arms, and with a resigned sigh he settled on the bed with her, closed the door of the room with his wand, and fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Awake

Chapter Four: Awake

Hermione Granger awakened early, around 6:30 am, feeling quite relaxed and serene,this alone seemed strange to her, it had been ages since that first night after the battle of Hogwarts, when she thought everything was finally going alright, that she had not felt this relaxed, how could it be? She had long stopped taking dreamless potions since she had began becoming dangerously addicted to them, so usually her nights were filled with nightmares that after becoming particularly intense woke her up at least two times each night, and feeling quite stressed, tired and scared in the morning.

This time though, it was different, how could she be feeling so well? She opened her eyes and removed her head from what she thought to be an unusually warm pillow, but as she did so she looked at the pillow, it wasn't a pillow!

It was a chest, a man's chest! She turned her head frantically towards the man's head, looked at him and froze, staring in shock at Draco Malfoy's sleeping, peaceful form for about two full minutes, then she tried to calm herself, collecting her thoughts. Yes, now she remembered, she had kidnapped the ferret the former day, had brought him to her place and had interrogated him, punching him **two glorious times** in the process, then she had discovered the shocking true, the ferr-Malfoy, it was not good to call him ferret after what he had told her, he had not killed her parents, he had saved them and was even trying to develop a way to find them! She remembered then, she had had a pretty big emotional break down that evening, falling asleep in the arms of an oddly yet quite gentle Malfoy. After she recollected these memories, she looked at Malfoy's face again, feeling a quite significant amount of guilt mixed with gratitude: guilt for what she had done to him the former day (thank goodness even in her unstable state she had managed to listen to her good sense and had released him), gratitude for what he had done for her parents and, apparently, for her. It was quite likely that he had felt obligated to stay with her during the night after hearing her screamings caused from the nightmares. Hermione felt a pretty big fear at the thought that by the following night, nobody would be with her to keep her safe from the nightmares, nobody would have helped her rest and she would have awakened once again alone, stressed, tired and scared. It had felt so good to wake up so relaxed, after all this time she had even began to forget how waking up like this was. Then she thought of where she was, the bedroom she was in was quite large, luxurious and with a bathroom attached to it, what you would expect in a Malfoy's plac… wait, was she at THE Malfoy's place, was she once again at the Manor? She started freaking out, if she was there, she had to get out, she needed to get out, she had only managed to enter it once again to kidnap Malfoy because her determination for revenge had temporarily put aside her fear, but now her terror of the place was coming back with a vengeance. This was that place! What if Malfoy had brought her here to do horrible things to her, what if the comfort she felt coming from him the last evening was a trick? This was the Manor, she couldn't trust anyone here. Her terror had rapidly taken over her mind and she frantically searched for her wand, only to find it nowhere, then she searched for Malfoy's wand, she did not see it, where was it?, perhaps he had it under the pillow she thought.

As she was trying to reach under his pillow, Draco awakened, she had not been exactly subtle in her movements, and the first thing he saw, the curves of her modest and quite nice cleavage showing from her pajama, made him think that perhaps he was having a pretty nice dream. When he felt a hand trying to go under his pillow he disappointedly realized this was not a dream but that something was wrong and he fastly reacted, rapidly taking his wand from under his pillow and successfully casted a binding spell on Hermione who was frozen in place, terrified. He had acted out of instinct, but now, seeing the look of pure terror on her face, his defensive stance turned to a very concerned one, what had terrified her so much? It was probably her terror that had made her act like this, but terror from what? She must have awakened and maybe she had been scared of not knowing where she was… where! That was the key! She must have thought, quite correctly, seeing the luxury of the room and the identity of the person sharing her bed, that she was at the Manor, the place of her torture and the one she visited at most nights in her nightmares. Yes, Draco thought, this must have been what triggered such a terrified reaction in her. Now that he understood, or at least he thought he understood, why she was this scared, he tried to calm her in the most gentle and soothing tone he could muster, "Gran-Hermione, please listen to me, yes this is the Manor, but nothing, nothing bad will happen to you here, I brought you here because it seemed the most reasonable thing to do given that we have agreed to work together to finish the location potion to find your parents, and I didn't feel ok in leaving you alone at your place in your current state. I was in a room beside this but during the night you started screaming from nightmares and I had to come here to calm you, I then decided, together with my mother which you will meet later and who was also worried about you, that it was better for me to sleep beside you to keep your nightmares from coming back. This house is no longer as you remembered it, it has been redecorated and that room will be off limits to you, you will never have to enter in it or go near it, nobody here wants to harm you in any way. Please calm down, I know I am awesome and dangerous" - he said with an arrogant smirk trying to lessen the tension by adding some humor - "but I am not a danger to you, I only wish to help you. You have nothing to fear in this house, not anymore, she is dead and cannot come back, she is dead and you survived, you were stronger than her madness and you still are, please Hermione calm yourself"

"Why?" Hermione said, she was calming a little, enough to be open to believe what he was saying, that she was safe in his house, a concept completely odd for her, but that she was considering, especially after his saying that she had been and was stronger than Bellatrix, something she somehow knew she had heard in her dreams during the night, oddly comforting and pleasant dreams. She wanted to know why tough, why was he so determined to help her, why was he being so nice with her? That is why she again said, shaking still a little from her former terror "Why are you so f-focused on helping me? Why are you being so nice to me? To trust you really mean what you are saying I need to know why"

"You already know why I want to find your parents Hermione, you know also I could not lie when I told you the reasons under veritaserum. Do you think I would want to help them while leaving you so broken? That I could be decent enough to wish to atone for what I was a part, however little, of, without also helping you? Yes, I feel responsible for your parents, it was I that was sent by Voldemort to kill them, this is why I want to make up and help them. However, I don't feel the most responsibility towards them, it was not them who were tortured in my house while I watched without moving a finger" Draco sighed heavily, he had not wanted to tell her this, but if she needed to know it to trust him, then he would tell her, " I managed to send your parents away, to avoid their death and yet I feel remorse, a responsibility towards them because of my part in the whole affair in the first place, how do you think I feel about a person who is probably more and more broken, every night, by nightmares regarding events my doing nothing caused in the first place?"

Draco paused a little, almost angry with her for not thinking immediately he could feel like this, that he could, after all, be decent enough to feel this towards a person whose horrors were so personally related to him. Then after a little, he continued "I had no idea you were in this state, I knew you were not exactly ok probably, but like this... hearing your screams last night and seeing your terror just after I casted the binding spell on you, how could I NOT be nice with you? Really, how much of a monster did you think I was to ask me this?"

Hermione was shocked, her fear had mostly disappeared, being definitely replaced with a mixture of relief, gratitude, and growing guilt. Yes, she had thought him to be such a monster, her fear, her pain and her anger had blinded her, the year she had spent by herself, gradually becoming more and more broken had done wonders in making her judgment flawed. Yes, now she believed him and she trusted him, probably more than she trusted herself, she did not trust herself much now, having realized just how deeply her broken state had clouded her judgment. She also wondered tough, if he wanted to find her parents because he felt responsible for what happened to them, since it was now evident he felt even more responsibility and remorse towards her, was he planning to to something for her too to make up for that? Something that went beyond one night of care? She dared herself to hope so, maybe, just maybe, the following night she would not be returning to her nightmares." I am sorry" - she said to him - " I really am, I am sorry to have kidnapped you, to have doubted so much even this morning of your motives, apparently the last year has been too much for me…" - she hesitated for a while, her pride making it quite difficult for her to admit what she was going to say - "I was wrong about you, you are a person much more decent than what I thought you to be, you may not be going to win some kindness award anytime soon, but you are not as bad as I thought, you are not a bad person...Draco."

Draco was relieved, finally he had managed somehow to break through her mistrust and her fear, maybe his mother had really not been wrong in her suggestion after all. He was also...pleased, hearing her nicely say his name, instead of the "ferret" or of his surname she often used with disdain was good. His name sounded very nice on her lips, she had for the first time talked to him like he was not some low villain, but like he was a decent person… maybe even a misunderstood friend. He looked at the clock on the wall and put those thoughts aside for the moment, it was already 8:00 am and he had to talk her into going to breakfast to meet his mother, but before he also had to convince her to agree to his mother suggestion that she should stay with him for the foreseeable future, allowing him to keep her away from her nightmares at night and to help her with his mother to heal from her trauma. "It's alright, I… understand that you thought only what your emotions coming from your trauma brought you to, I also cannot blame you too much for that, I was a bad person after all, I DID act horribly towards you for years, something I feel shame about now, and for which I… apologize, so I guess I cannot really blame you for not trusting me so suddenly. However, now it would be time to go to breakfast, I wanted you to meet my mother, but before I have a...proposal, to make." - He was nervous and hesitated for a while, before finally continuing - "I want to ask you to stay here for some time, letting me and my mother help you heal from your trauma, by sleeping in bed beside me to keep your nightmares away, do not worry, it would really be only to sleep, by helping me with the potion project, and basically by spending time with us. There will be some rules I guess, probably my mother will tell you about them later, but I guess those will be specific to help you, where not to go in the house to avoid going near to that room or to the dungeons, what stuff to avoid touching since some of it may still be containing dark magic the curse breakers have yet to remove, things like that… my mother will probably tell you this but I want to to tell you too: anything you may need, clothes, books, yeah I guess you will be spending a lot of time in our library being the bookish know-it-all you so amazingly are," - he grinned as he said this - "you can use them. What do you think? You do not have to answer right now, although I would be pleased if you agreed immediately, but you can take all the time you want to decide..." "For how much time?"- she asked, interrupting him with a worried voice - "for how much time would this arrangement continue?"  
"For as long as it would require to make you heal, it could be weeks, months, it is irrelevant, you would be able to leave at anytime obviously, but we would not even consider to end the arrangement until you are healed."

Hermione could not believe it, finally it was over, her nights full of nightmares were over. There had been a time in which she would have been quite angry with the Malfoys to have planned this behind her back, but right now all she felt about it was relief, finally she could stop falling deeper and deeper into the hole of despair she had kept falling in the former year, finally she could stop being alone and increasingly hurting, finally she could start healing. With this relief in mind she answered ,"I do not need time" - at this Draco was disappointed, preparing himself for a refusal - "I accept right now, I thank you for your proposal and I will also thank Mrs. Malfoy later, now let's not talk about it any more for the moment and let's go to breakfast, shall we?"

Draco was surprised, positively so, and quite pleased to see her having for the first time since he had seen her in those two days, a carefree and relatively content tone, her expression containing a smile that was not fake or sarcastic this time, but genuine. He answered then "S-sure, thanks for having answered right now, let's prepare to go to breakfast then, shall we?"

After having washed and clothed themselves, Draco and Hermione got out of the room and with a somewhat friendly air among them that had never happened before, went downstairs, to find Narcissa sat at the long table of the Manor great hall, looking at them with a knowing and sweetly cunning smile.


	5. Chapter 5: Adjusting and Planning

Chapter Five: Adjusting and planning

Narcissa sat in the large dining room, drinking her tea while she watched Draco and Hermione enter the room. They looked as she predicted they would, relatively friendly and calm, her plan was appearing to work well until now. She greeted them, invited them to sit and called Winky to make her bring some tea and cakes for them. After Winky returned with the food and left, Narcissa sweetly looked to Hermione, whose expression was both hopeful and tense, and spoke - "Miss Granger, I welcome you to our Manor, first of all I assure you, as I am sure Dreaco already has, that never again you will have to fear anything harmful happening to you here. I apologize for my part in what you had to endure during your first stay in our house, since yesterday, seeing the emotional long term trauma that first stay has brought upon you I have been in even more need to make this apology. However, I think you will agree that actions, also in apologies, count sometimes more than words, this is why I hope you have accepted or will accept the offer, mine and Draco's, that I trust my son has already made you, to help your healing from the effects of your ordeal. Regardless of your agreement to this arrangement, I sincerely hope however that in time you can forgive us for our part in what happened to you. I also assure you that we will find your parents, Draco has been developing a potion to locate them that will be finished shortly. Now, if you would like, i am eager to know if you have already accepted our offer. One last thing also, since we will spend a significant amount of time together, I would like, if you agree, that we call each other by name"

Hermione did not trust much Narcissa, she had a feeling that somehow, unlike Draco's, Narcissa's reasons for helping her were not entirely based on remorse and redemption. However, Hermione also felt that Narcissa, like Draco, whatever her reasons were, did not mean her any harm, plus she had already accepted their offer, so she answered calmly - "Mrs. Malfoy, Narcissa, I have accepted your offer, I thank you for it and hope that I won't be a bother to you or your son during my stay here. I agree to call each other by name, since I will basically be in yours and your son's care for a while and as you said we will likely pass a lot of time together."- Hermione paused, she wanted to ask something she feared they would deny her, she did her best not to sound pleading, unsuccessfully - "Draco has told me there will be rules to this arrangement, mostly regarding places in the Manor I should avoid to not trigger bad memories, or regarding not touching some objects that could still be cursed by dark magic, I promise that I will follow those rules, as long as they are reasonable, and that if I should feel one of them is not ok I will tell you. I have too, however,a "rule", a… request, for both of you. I would like, I would need, that you waited at least a few days before you inform my friends that I am here. I just need some time before I face them, I can't do it right now, I understand that you can't keep me hidden here, not for long, but just for a few days, please, make sure my friends do not come to know I am here."

"Thank you for having accepted our offer, don't worry Hermione dear, nobody of your friends will know you are here until you feel ready, even if if it takes weeks for you to be." - Narcissa answered, sweetly, very pleased by the confirmation that the first part of her plan, to make this arrangement for Hermione and have her to accept it, had gone well, but also pleased by Hermione's request, for Narcissa, for the moment, the more days Hermione stayed with them without having contact with her other friends, the better it would be, because it would have hopefully accelerated the bonding between her and Draco. Narcissa then looked at Draco, saying - "You too agree right Draco?" - Her son nodded and said - "Of course, Hermione, while I would love to see Potter face when I tell him you are here with us, I won't betray your confidence, from me, he and the Weasleys or your other friends won't know a thing. However I would like to add that you cannot hide forever, sooner or later you will have to face them, you can delay this for a few days or even for some weeks, but after then you will have to tell them, or when they will know they will be very resented by your not telling them, much more than from your decision of lying to them about your permanence in Australia. " Narcissa was irritated, damn naive Draco, she was going to have a very needed talk with her son later, but now was not the time, so she spoke to Hermione - "As you see, Hermione, you have nothing to fear, nobody here is going to reveal your location until you allow it. Now, regarding the rules for your arrangement, I have written them on a parchment and Winky will give it to you at lunch. Do you have any questions?"

Hermione breathed a huge sigh of relief, she didn't have to face her friends yet, she could focus on starting to heal and on finally enjoying some days of peace. She then thought what else she wanted to ask, and suddenly a very important thing she had almost forgotten about came to her mind, so she spoke - "Thank you, this means a lot to me. Regarding questions, where is my wand? I didn't have it when I woke up this morning"

Narcissa barely manage to stop grinning at that, she had told Winky to confiscate Hermione's wand after Draco had fallen asleep with her. Narcissa feared, quite correctly, that it was not wise to leave a wand with a person this broken and unstable, whose immediate reaction at waking up in the Manor was unpredictable. She hesitated on telling Hermione this, since it could put her on guard, but she decided to trust that the girls logical mind would have agreed that it had been a reasonable thing to do on her part, so she told her - "I was not sure how you would have reacted, given your emotional state, immediately after waking up this morning in this house, so I told Winky to put it away, if you wish I will tell her to give it back to you at lunch, but I would prefer if you agreed to stay without it for at least 3 days, when you will have already passed a few nights free of nightmares here, what do you think Hermione, dear?"

Hermione was annoyed and irritated by this answer, she had suspected it had been one of the Malfoys to hide her wand, however she acknowledged that it had been a reasonable action on Narcissa's part and she probably would have done the same. What about Narcissa's request to stay without it for 3 full days tough? That seemed an exaggeration to her, not only that, just the thought of being without her wand for 3 full days handing it, just like that, to people that no matter how nice now, not long ago thought of her as scum, made her feel anger boil inside her, so she refused and agreed to have it returned to her at lunch.

After they finished breakfast, Narcissa suggested Draco to make Hermione see the library and to let her decide in which of the many bedrooms available they would stay, and also to show her which parts of the Manor to avoid for not incurring near the place of her ordeal.

Hermione loved the library, it was very large, clean and some the of books were not available even in the Library at Hogwarts, she already knew she was going to spend a lot of time there. Regarding the bedrooms, Hermione was simply stunned by how large and luxurious each of them where, in the end she chose a bedroom with the window standing in front of the Manor's gardens, helped Draco to move some of his things, organized hers taking clothes from the "common" wardrobe the Malfoys somehow had for guests, and put them in their room.

The lunch was relaxed, Winky gave her Narcissa's parchment with the arrangement's rules and she learned that Winky, after being in the battle of Hogwarts with the other house-elves led by Kreacher, had grown even more into desiring to try overcoming her butterbeer addiction, that she had developed after having been horrified to know that Crouch Senior, her beloved master, had been killed by his son, Barty Crouch Junior. Narcissa and Draco had found her at the Leaky Cauldron a month after the battle, they had no more house elfs and needed one, while Winky needed a family and something to work for to help her overcome her addiction. So she had joined the Malfoy household, was treated very well and had gradually won her butterbeer addiction. - "Winky is happy now Miss! Winky is not sad anymore! In Winky's heart there will always be love for old Master Crouch Senior, but now Winky has new Masters, a new family and Winky is happy, she doesn't even drink too much butterbeer anymore!" -

In the afternoon Draco showed Hermione the labs where he was developing the locating potion and explained the project to her. She was impressed by his ability, although she knew he had always been excellent at potions in school, even more so than herself. At dinner Hermione began getting nervous, in a while she would go to bed… with Draco Malfoy. It was still hard for her to grasp how it could be possible that this relatively nice and caring person (or at least nice and caring towards her) was the same Draco that had been so horrible to her and her friends for years at school. She was also scared and nervous because she feared somehow sleeping with someone beside her would not be enough to keep her away from her nightmares and she was really terrified at the thought that her nightmares perhaps would not be leaving her.

Draco noticed Hermione's discomfort and tried to cheer her up in the evening, either by making smart and sarcastic remarks or by showing her some rare books in the Library she could like, however he saw her discomfort never completely leaving her. When they went to bed, after having changed into their pajamas, she began slightly shaking, her fear now almost as bad as in the morning when he had casted the binding spell on her. - "What is it Hermione? Nervous of sleeping with such an awesome bloke?" - He said smirking, trying to ease the tension, her answer was a pretty hurtful slap - Be thankful it was not a punch you arrogant git! I a-am not nervous because I am going to sleep with you, or at least not mostly for that - she paused a moment. Sighing heavily before continuing - " I am scared Draco, I am terrified because I fear this may not be enough to keep the nightmares away". At that Draco saw tears beginning to fall from her eyes, gently pulled her to him in an embrace in the bed and with a comforting tone told her - "The last night, after you fell asleep in my arms you did not have any more nightmares and slept peacefully right?! - she nodded - "Then maybe if I hold you as we sleep like last night it is more likely, if not certain, that your nightmares won't come back. Trust me, they won't, now try to calm and get to sleep, if for an unlikely and unfortunate circumstance a nightmare comes, I will help you to send it away like I did last night, ok?" - She, nodded, pulled herself more closely towards Draco, clinging to him tightly, closed her eyes and before falling into a peaceful, nightmare-free sleep, she whispered - "Thank you".


	6. Chapter 6: The Escape

Chapter Six: The Escape

Hermione woke up still held tightly in Draco's embrace, relaxed, refreshed and peaceful, even more than the former day, and this morning, she did not freak out finding out she was in the Manor. It was quite early, 6:00 am, and it was the second consecutive night without nightmares since before the torture. She carefully slipped away from Draco's arms and sat on her part of the large bed, thinking.

She was in the Manor, in the place where she had been tortured, where Dobby had been killed, where people who once thought of her and her parents as scum lived. She froze thinking that. How could she really trust these people, how could she really give herself into their care? How could she think of entrusting her parents finding to the same people who not long ago wished her and those like her dead? Draco once wished her dead, he had wished the monster of the chamber of secrets would have killed her first among the "filthy mudbloods", Harry and Ron had told her that once. How could she so easily trust people like this? It was more than that tough, even if they seemed now somehow trustworthy, did she WANT them to be the ones to help her? To be the ones to find her parents? Of all people, did she really want the Malfoys to be the ones to help her, just because she didn't have the courage to face her friends?

It was a matter of principle and pride and of still not having really forgiven the Malfoys for what they did to her, particularly Draco in all the school years, she didn't want that, she didn't want the help of these people she decided, she didn't needed it, she would find her parents by herself. She needed to take Draco's project materials first though, she would go now, get some clothing, put everything within her magical purse, leave a short letter of explanation for the Malfoys, and then she would be gone before they woke up. Yes, she could do it she thought, feeling confident until a terrifying fear came back to her. What would she do with her nightmares? She NEEDED someone else to sleep with her to keep them away, and she REALLY did not want to have another single night like those she had had since the torture and before she came back at the Manor, so how would she deal with the nightmares? Then an ambitious plan formed in her mind, yes that's how she would manage it she thought. She would take all the dreamless potions she could from Draco's lab, bring them with her and use them every night, she would find her parents before she became addicted or her body developed an immunity to the potion, and then she would sleep with her parents and heal with them, far away both from her friends and from the Malfoys.

With her plan now complete, she didn't even bother to change, still in her pajamas, she put some clothes from her wardrobe in the room in her magical purse and silently got out of the bedroom, leaving Draco asleep, she wanted to escape the place as soon as possible, before the Malfoys woke up. She went to the labs, and frantically began putting all the equipment and the materials for the locating potion project, along with a lot of vials full of dreamless sleep potion, in her purse. Then, she wrote a short letter of explanation for the Malfoys, left it in the lab, and went to the Manor entrance, looked back one time, then turned around and, hoping to have done the right choice and to not regret it later, left the Manor's area, got out of its wards and disapparated from the place.

Draco Malfoy woke up feeling something missing, he opened his eyes, Hermione was not in his arms, and not in the room, perhaps she was in the bathroom? He called for her but noone answered. He checked her wardrobe, almost all of the clothes his mother had given her were gone! He started worrying, strongly hoping that what he feared had not happened. He frantically got out of the bedroom and went to his labs, the materials for the project, the equipment, all was missing! She had stolen everything! - "Shit, idiotic, stubborn, mulish, mistrusting, arrogant swotty, thief of a witch!" - He began swearing loudly for five full minutes, fully understanding what had happened, feeling a mix of fury and concern about the situation. Hermione, stubborn, mistrusting, idiotic Hermione, had ran away, taking everything of the potion project and almost all of his supply of dreamless sleep. If he had to guess, he would have bet the swotty, idiotic witch thought she would be able to finish the project by herself, keeping her nightmares away with the dreamless potions long enough to finish the project and find her parents. Draco knew better though, he knew that while Hermione was very talented, in potions she was not nearly as skilled as he was, and there was no way she would be able to finish the potion. "I know what will happen" - Draco thought bitterly with a mixture of anger and concern for the stubborn witch he had began to care for, - " she won't finish the project, the dreamless potions will become useless and her nightmares will return much stronger than ever since it will have been a while since they have come" - The question was, Draco thought, what would she do then? Would she stubbornly continue working on the project by herself, despite the nightmares, becoming even more broken each day? Would she finally go back to Potter and her friends? Or would she come back here, to him, begging for him to take her back and help her once again? A part of him really hoped she would come back, yes he was furious with her, but he had began to care for her, he cared for her, and really wanted to help her. What he told her was true, he thought himself to be a good part of what caused her torture and a significant part of what had brought her to be in this state was him, he had watched, done nothing while his psychotic and sadistic aunt tortured her for a whole hour. Hell!, it was a miracle by itself the fact that she had not ended up at Saint Mungo's like the Longbottoms, she had one of the strongest minds he knew. He really wanted to help her heal, to make up in part at least for what he had done. She was a fun person to be around, she was always curious, yesterday she had asked him everything about the labs, his project, about Winky, even about their bedroom history. Her inquisitive nature was sometimes irritating but also fun and intriguing. He had liked to have her here and had began to look forward at the weeks, maybe months, she would have been in the Manor. The last evening she had seemed to be finally trusting him, when she had whispered "thank you" before falling asleep in his arms. Yes, he thought he was doing a good job as her caretaker, but then he had woken up and she was gone, ran away! So apparently he was not doing a good job. However, instead of running away she should have spoken to him about her problem. Bullshit, he told himself - "she is in an emotionally unstable state, and I am, after all, still Malfoy, I should not assume she would open up to me about anything" - Having these bitter thoughts, Draco noticed a note Hermione left on the table of the lab, the note said - "I apologize to you both, Draco and Narcissa, for leaving like this, but I can't do this, I just can't. I release you from your debt. You already helped me enough, now I will finish the rest by myself. My deepest apologies and thanks. Hermione Granger ".

"Arrogant, idiotic witch" - Draco thought again - "she won't ever be able to finish this project by herself, damn it, arrogant I-think-I-know-it-all-while-I-don't idiotic witch!" -

Narcissa had woken up quite satisfied, her plan was going well, and Ninfadora had written her she would come to stay for 2 weeks with Teddy the following month, so she was in a very good mood. Unfortunately for her, her good mood faded very quickly, it started fading when she did not find Draco and Hermione at breakfast, it was almost gone when she did not find them in their room, and it was completely gone when she found Draco, ALONE, in the labs, who explained to her how her future daughter-in-law(yes, she WOULD be her daughter-in-law), apparently being even more unstable than she thought, had escaped the manor in the night unnoticed with half of the labs equipment. - " Would you mind to tell me, Draco DEAR, what have you said or done to the poor girl to make her run away like this?" - Narcissa's tone was sweet but full of a cold fury that would have terrified many, MANY people.

While Draco and Narcissa had their talk about what had happened, and decided to try to look for her in the following days, Hermione had settled in a new hiding place, in a forest actually quite near Malfoy Manor, about half an hour walking distance from it, had set up her tent, put up her wards, and had begun working on the locating potion. After a little progress that had quite cheered up her spirit, she did not manage to make any more for all day and went to bed, after having drunk a dreamless potion, quite frustrated, but still thinking it would just be a matter of a few days, before she managed to finish the potion and find her parents, after all Draco had explained her that the potion was almost complete.

Hermione's hopes, however, after 2 weeks of failure became to get extremely tiny, until her frustration was beginning to transform into desperation, she was wondering, worried, if she would manage to finish the project before becoming addicted to the dreamless potion or, even worse, before her body became immune to it. After 3 weeks had passed, one night, 2 hours after she had gone to sleep, her worry transformed into a very terrifying reality, her nightmares came back, much stronger than ever, awakening her four times that night. Around 5:00 am, she couldn't take it anymore, she was terrified, very tired and quite desperate, her plan had failed spectacularly, she had no choice, she could either finally find the courage to face her friends, or take the very risky gamble of going back to the Malfoys, apologizing profusely and begging for them to take her back. After 20 full minutes of pondering the issue, very uncomfortable and scared from the nightmares which were still vivid in her mind, she made her decision.


	7. Chapter 7: The Return

Chapter Seven: The Return

Hermione had decided, she did not want to go to her friends, well, she wanted to, desperately, but not like this, she did not want them to see how her stubbornness had affected her, how being alone all this time had broken her, she wanted them to see her healed, relatively so at least, normal.

She remembered Ron's screams of despair when she was being tortured, and their faces the first time she had nightmares. She did not want them to worry for her even more than she had caused them to, and they were already worried, like her, about Ron, every day she hoped she would hear news saying he had woken up. if he had woken up, she would not care about her state, she would go to him, immediately. Ron had not woken up tough, never, since that day when he had fallen from the tower because of that damn Death Eater. She had screamed "Arresto Momentum" but he had stopped falling at half of the distance and then had fallen again, her spell had saved him from dying, but not from falling into a damn coma he had not, after more than a year, yet woken up from.

Not going to her friends left her with only an option, one she did not like in the least, one that her pride was firmly against taking, but right now her pride had been greatly put aside by her terror and by her resignation to the fact that her plan had failed and she had to deal with the consequences, regardless of if she liked them or not. She was extremely tired, she had not slept and when she had, her nightmares had stopped her from resting and had tired her even more. She really wanted to sleep, and without going to her friends, her only hope to sleep was Draco Malfoy.

She decided that if she went back to the Malfoys, she would not leave this time until she had really healed, that meant she would have to stay at the Manor for weeks, perhaps even months, but she did not care. She was tired and scared, but most of all she was tired of being tired and scared, she wanted to heal, and if she had to pass a month or two at the Malfoys to do that, then she would. With a resigned face, she packed everything into her magical purse, looked at her clock, it was almost 6:00 am, the Malfoys would still likely be in bed. She hoped that awakening them would not make their taking her back even more unlikely. Hermione took her purse, but before disapparating she realized it was very risky for her to apparate and disapparate while being this tired and emotionally scared, so she had no choice than to walk.

Half an hour later, she stood, even more tired, in front of Malfoy Manor, she knocked hardly and after a little while Winky showed up, saying - "Mistress Hermione! Mistress is back! Mistress Narcissa and Master Draco have been so worried! They will be extremely relieved to see she is back. Hermione must wait here a moment, Winky goes to call them!" -

Draco Malfoy was sleeping peacefully, he had passed most of the days of the last two weeks working on a new locating potion, to find Hermione. He lacked the last ingredient, the blood of a Granger, but he hoped he would come up with a solution when he needed it. His mother had been really hard on him since when Hermione had ran away, she wanted him to find her at all costs, even if it meant going to find a time turner to take her blood in the past. Narcissa had also admitted her plan to Draco at some point, she wanted to see Draco marrying Hermione. Draco had suspected it before, it made sense that his mother had planned something like that. Narcissa always wanted him to have a famous and brilliant wife, an "elite" bride who would be good for him and who would help empower the family and its public image. Now that Narcissa had put aside her blood purity ideology, among the candidates/ possible brides were also the muggleborns and the half-bloods. Draco had agreed in the end, to a degree, to his mother's plan. He would try going along with it, and if after knowing Hermione better he had not found appealing the prospect of marrying her, he would tell his mother and she would accept his decision… hopefully. Draco's partial acceptance of his mother's plan had been due in part to his desire to placate Narcissa, but in part because he had started to like Hermione and wanted to see where this seed of attraction could lead him. Suddenly, loud knocks on his bedroom's door woke Draco up - "Master Draco, its Winky! Mistress Hermione is back! Master Draco must come with Winky to wake Mistress Narcissa and go to greet her!" - Draco immediately got up, in the end what he hoped, even if lately he was beginning to doubt it, had happened, Hermione had come back! He told Winky to make Hermione wait in the big living room near the entrance, while he would wake up his mother and then go with her to greet their returned guest.

Narcissa was awakened by her son shaking her almost shouting - "Mother! Mother! Wake up, hurry! Hermione is back!" - Narcissa looked at her son, could it be true? Could it be that her plans hadn't failed yet? She got up and with her son, hurried towards the large living room near the entrance, to greet their finally returned guest. Oh yes, Narcissa thought, this time she would make sure Hermione would not escape, she had underestimated Hermione's gryffindorish recklessness last time and had not modified the wards of the Manor to stop Hermione from getting out the Manor, but this time she would, it would be the first thing she was going to do after Hermione had gone to bed with Draco.

Hermione was waiting nervously, sitting on a large, luxurious couch in the living room, all she wanted, more than anything in that moment, was going to bed and sleep without nightmares, but she knew that until she had Draco's approval, she would not be able to do that. She was startled when she heard Narcissa's voice exclaim - "Hermione! Dear silly girl, you made us worry to death. Why did you run away like that? Didn't we show you how you could trust us? Where have you been all this time? You look extremely tired, have the nightmares come back again?" - Hermione looked at Narcissa and at Draco, standing in front of her, with a worried and somewhat angry expression on their face.

She would have to tell them the truth, if she wanted them to trust her that she would not leave this time, if she wanted them to help her, she would have to be honest with them. So she swallowed her pride, made a heavy sigh and told them. She told them how she had ran away because she did not feel comfortable in them being the ones to help her, how she believed she would have been able to finish the locating potion by herself, how she failed spectacularly, how her nightmares last night had returned much stronger than ever, making her painfully aware that her body had become immune to the dreamless sleep potion. She told them how she did not want her friends to see her like that, how in the end she decided to come back here, and implored Draco and Narcissa to take her back, swearing she would not run away this time - " I am sorry, I am really sorry, I apologize for how I have behaved towards you, you only tried to help me and I repaid you running away in the night without saying anything. I swear that I will not do any of that this time, I have come back here because…" - she hesitated, swallowed her pride a little more and continued - " because I want to ask you to help me, I want to really accept the arrangement you proposed to me three weeks ago, I will agree to any further conditions you may have, I know they will be reasonable, just take me back, help me, I-I am tired, I am tired of being tired and scared and more and more broken every day, I just want to be able to sleep at night without nightmares, to be able to think of sleeping without being terrified of going to bed, help me achieve this... please" -

Draco and Narcissa were taken aback by her honesty, she really was desperate, and wanted their help so badly that she was ready to swallow her pride and implore them to give it to her. Their anger quickly faded as she apologized and implored them to take her back. Only concern and respect remained in their minds towards Hermione, they were concerned for how bad her state could be for her to be so desperate to get their help, and they respected her for being strong enough to be able to swallow her pride and be honest with them about her need for help. They looked at each other, nodded and then Narcissa spoke again - "It is alright dear, don't worry, we are not angry with you, we will help you, you now need to go to bed with Draco and have a good nightmare-free rest, when you will wake up we will talk again, for now however, know that we accept your apology and we agree to help you. Now Draco" - Narcissa turned towards her son - " Would you be so kind as to take Hermione to bed and have her rest?"

Draco was feeling something quite unusual for him, he felt tenderness towards the girl he taunted so hard in the past wash over him, tenderness and respect, she was a strong and amazing witch. She was so broken and still prideful and confident, too confident for her own good, but she was also strong enough and mature enough to acknowledge her errors and seek for help. After having agreed to his mother request, he took Hermione's hand and led her upstairs to his bedroom, he could see that she was nervous - " don't worry, I understand why you ran away, it was foolish of you but understandable given our past interactions. I am not angry or irritated with you, I only want to help you, you don't have to say anything anymore if you don't want to. Our conversation can wait until you are rested and relaxed, shall we go to bed now?" Seeing that she nodded her agreement, he took her to bed, embraced her tightly, and whispered in her ear - "Don't worry, your nightmares won't come back, not today, not ever, you will heal, it's a promise, now sleep"

Hermione was relieved, it was over, swallowing her pride to apologize and implore for help had been harder than she feared, but once she had done it, it felt liberating, she felt lighter, relieved, the Malfoys had taken her back. She could finally rest, and start to get better. This time she would not let her pride or her past with the Malfoys get in the way, this time she would stay, and heal. So, after Draco's whispering of a promise of healing, she closed her eyes and fell into a sleep without nightmares.

Narcissa was relieved, finally Hermione was back and her plan could continue, she was impressed by the girl, and also felt sympathy towards her, together with the familiar guilt of knowing how her current state was in large part due to what she experienced in her first stay at the manor. Narcissa went in front of the manor's wards and modified them to stop Hermione from leaving, then went back to bed and fell into a brief - it was already almost 7:00 am after all - but relaxed and relieved, sleep.


	8. Chapter 8: Healing and more

Chapter Eight: Healing and more

It was 10 hours after having fallen asleep that Hermione woke up, relieved, relaxed and hopeful. This time the thought of running away did not ever cross her mind, she was done with that. She wanted to heal, the Malfoys had promised once again they would help her and she would not betray once again their kindness. Also, Draco had personally made a vow to her, whispering to her before she fell asleep that her nightmares would never come back, that she would heal, and she trusted him completely this time. She believed him, as odd as it was, she could not deny any more to herself that he had changed a lot, and that somehow, he seemed really concerned for her, a little more than what decency or remorse would require, he seemed concerned for her as if he was starting to care about HER, specifically, as Hermione. She did not want to believe it at first, but in the following days, it became undeniable.

Since when she woke up in the afternoon still in Draco's arms in his bedroom, with him reading a potion book using his wand to keep it levitating and turning the pages, he had been more and more pleasant to her, even charming after the first two days.

She also noted that week, how she was somehow never alone, during the day she was either with Narcissa speaking of her change after the war, of her abandonment of the pureblood ideology and of her reacquaintance with her sister and her sister's daughter, or she was with Draco in the labs finishing the locating potion, or she was at breakfast, lunch and dinner with both of the Malfoys. Only when for some hours she stayed to read in the library it seemed she was alone, albeit she saw periodically, about every 20 minutes, Winky coming for some reason into library to do something, anything, from taking a book to reorganizing a shelf, ask her how she was doing, and get out.

At nights, she was always with Draco, sleeping tightly in his arms, every evening feeling a little less fear that her nightmares would return during the night. They of course, as Draco had told her, never came back. She had never spent so much time with Draco Malfoy, and certainly never with him being so nice and even charming towards her. They slept together, worked together, talked a lot sometimes when he went with her in the library. He was still quite arrogant and sometimes boastful, occasionally teasing her playfully, but mostly he was interesting, really, in a way she would have never imagined. They both liked a lot of the same things. Historical magical novels and books, he even liked many famous muggle novels, they both liked very much potions, even if she was nowhere near his talent regarding them. They both loved cakes and how to make them even more tasty using charms. Hermione told him of how her parents, because of their work as dentists, made sure that while she was allowed to eat sweets and cakes, she had to use moderation. Draco told her how there were spells to solve those problems and that she could eat as many cakes as she wished without worrying about her teeth.

At the beginning of the second week since she had come back, Hermione was starting to like Draco, to really like him. With her he was nice, smart, mischievous, charming and overall quite fun to be around. She had also began to notice that he was not bad looking at all, without his sneer, he looked rather good. She did not know exactly how all these thoughts made her feel, and if she would act on them in the coming days or weeks, but she acknowledge that they were there, and that they were growing stronger each day she passed at the manor. Her healing was going well, sometimes had panic attacks if she went near an object that reminded her of that room, or if she by chance went too near the way to that room herself, but beside that, she was doing well: her nightmares had not come back and she felt more and more relaxed each day.

In the second half of the second week, Draco was beginning to bother her, he kept telling her she should contact her friends, that - "While I have no desire really to see Scarboy and the Ginger clan to invade the Manor, I have much less desire, Hermione, to see you feeling more and more guilty for not contacting them. You are not healed completely, not by a long shot, but you are much, much better than when you came here, and they will be really upset if you wait too long to call them. I saw Potter at the Leaky Cauldron yesterday, he was telling his fiancè and this other friend of yours, Longbottom, that if he did not hear from you by the next month, he would be going to Australia to look for you himself. Really Hermione, aren't you a bloody Gryffindor or what? What are you so afraid of? They will be a little upset yes, but I would bet half of my vaults' worth at gringotts that they will be much more relieved to see their friend back than be upset because she has foolishly avoided them like this because she was too broken and stubborn to contact them. Furthermore, am I or am I not your caretaker? As such I would strongly advise you, order you even if I may, for your mental health sake, to contact them by the end of this week, otherwise I will talk to my mother about this and she is much more annoying than me in convincing people. So how is it going to be?" - This Draco said, and Hermione in the end agreed to call her friends and to tell them to come to the Manor to meet her together with Teddy and Tonks, who would be coming to stay at the Manor at the end of the week, and would be staying for 1 month.

The day before the arrival of Hermione's friends Draco was nervous, increasingly so, not because of them, her friends would annoy him a little perhaps, but they were not the reason for his nervousness. No, he was nervous because he had grown to really like the witch who had been staying under his care for the past two weeks and he was unsure on how to proceed about it. He could not tell his mother that her plan did not sit well with him now, because it did, even too much well.

In the last two weeks he had come to know an Hermione Granger he did not know the existence of. She was far, very far from the swotty (and violent) know-it-all he had taunted so hard in the past. She was smart sure, in many areas she was even better than him intellectually, it was no surprise since he had always been behind her in almost all grades at school. She was also funny tough, her inquisitive nature, the way she reacted with playful irritation at his teasing, the way she laughed when he was a little too boastful and made purposefully exaggerate remarks about himself. Another thing he liked, no, loved, about her was her passion, the way she sometimes spoke, often when they were in the library, about her goals for the future, how she would shake up the Ministry by passing laws to end the mistreatments and discriminations of werewolves, vampires, ghosts even, and house elves of course.

Regarding elves there had already been a significant progress. After the war Kingsley had passed an act in honor of Dobby to which he was pressured about by Harry Potter. The law magically did forbid the mistreatment of house elves and made it much easier for them to become free, now it was enough for them to say "I am a free elf!" three times with their hand on their chest and their servitude would end.

Hermione's passion and ambition for her goals appealed to Draco very much, they looked very Slytherin to him, her desire to achieve great things was something he would love to help her with one day, and also having her help him in achieving great things himself was something he looked very much forward to when he imagined how their eventual married life would be. Yes, he thought, he really liked her and wanted to try and see if she, as he suspected, liked him too. He wondered however if he should wait a bit more before acting on these feelings, he was her caretaker after all and she was still far from being completely healed, she should focus on healing not on a relationship. A part of him, however, told him that perhaps, a relationship would HELP, not slow, her healing process.

Narcissa was getting excited, although she would have never let her face show it, her niece would come tomorrow together with Potter and the Weasley family. She looked forward to have Teddy and Ninfadora staying a whole month at the Manor, but she was also interested in pursuing a somehow friendly relationships with the Weasleys and especially with Harry Potter. Being friends with the Wizarding world's currently most celebrated hero would certainly do wonders to help restore the Malfoy's name, almost as much as Hermione Granger becoming a Malfoy. Regarding that last thing, her plan seemed to be proceeding extremely well. The pair seemed to interact more and more friendly each day, and she could swear to have seen each of them at times staring somewhat longingly at each other when they thought the other was not looking. As for herself, Narcissa had done all she could to make sure they spent time together and that Hermione basically was never alone. She had told Draco to stay with her as much as possible, and when Hermione was in the library, she had often told him and given him an excuse to go there too. Yes, her plan was going quite well, she just wondered how much time it would pass before either Draco or Hermione began to act on their feelings. She hoped soon, and she really hoped to see them marry before the end of the following year. She could feel it, those two together would have been perfect, would have achieved great things and not only restored, but brought the Malfoy's public image to levels of approval never reached in centuries. With this thoughts in mind, Narcissa, who had just gone to bed, for it was the evening before the arrival of Hermione's friends and of Teddy and Nymphadora, fell asleep.


	9. Chapter9:Bonds of Love are Bonds of Care

Chapter Nine: Bonds of Love are Bonds of Care

Harry Potter woke up overly excited that morning, two days ago he had finally received an owl from Hermione, an owl whose letter oddly had written on it the address of Malfoy Manor. At first he had thought it to be some invitation by Narcissa for him to pressure once again the Ministry to give her some days of relief from her house arrest to visit Tonks and Teddy, Tonks often complained to him and Ginny, almost every day at dinner, that it was unfair how Narcissa was not allowed to get out of the manor even once to visit her remaining Black family members. Harry and Ginny somewhat agreed, they were not fond of Narcissa or of any inhabitant of Malfoy Manor in the least, but they thought too it was unfair that Tonks couldn't have her relatives from her mother's family to visit her at Grimmauld Place. However, despite this, there was little Hary could do. He had tried once to ask Kingsley to grant Narcissa a relief of some days from her house arrest to visit Tonks, but his friend had been firm in his stance that to agree to Harry's request would not have done well at all for the Ministry image with a public still angry and bitter toward purebloods and even, to a lesser degree, slytherin wizards and witches.

After the war a real thirst for revenge seemed to have possessed the non pureblood Wizarding population of Britain. There was almost no wizard or witch who had not lost a close friend or a family member in the second wizarding war, either directly killed by a death eater or indirectly damaged beyond repair by tortures. There were even some eleven and twelve year old students who had ended up in Saint Mungo's because of the "occasional" times in which the Carrows had "exaggerated" with their demonstrations of the Cruciatus curse on the students.

The public mostly blamed the remaining pureblood families for all the pain and the loss. According to the most prominent supporters of hardline retribution against purebloods and those half-bloods who had supported their racist ideology, purebloods were the root of all that had gone badly in the last 60 years, ever since the rise of Grindelwald (who to be fair was only against muggles and held nothing against muggleborns). These hardline supporters, who had even formed a political party, "Twilight of Purity (TOP)", hoped to unseat Kingsley in the elections which would be held 5 years after the war and which were now almost three years away, believed that all pureblood family assets and properties should be seized by the Ministry, that all non underage purebloods should be either sent to Azkaban or their magic sealed forever, that the Slytherin House at Hogwarts had to be abolished and its members splitted among the remaining three houses. The pureblood minors, according to "TOP", had to be stripped away from their families and given to a muggleborn tutor assigned by the ministry. "TOP" supporters appeared to be still a minority among the public, but Kingsley did not intend to give the still angry and bitter electorate any further reasons to be attracted to them.

The letter from Malfoy Manor, however, did not came from Narcissa tough, it came from Hermione! Harry and Ginny had been completely shocked reading it. It was a letter of apology from Hermione, in which she summarized that she had always lied about being still in Australia to find her parents, that she was deeply sorry for having lied to them and that she would tell them in person everything about where she had been in the last year and a half since the end of the war. She informed them that she was currently staying with the Malfoys at their Manor and that she would like to meet them there the same day when Teddy and Tonks would move to the Manor for a month, meaning two days after the arrival of the letter.

Harry was shocked, worried and full of questions begging for an answer. Why had she lied to them, to him, all this time? Were had she been? In what trouble could she be to have been forced to go to stay in what for her had to be the most terrifying place on Earth, the Manor, the same Manor in which she had been brutally tortured for a whole hour? Harry had been worried sick for his best friend since when she had stubbornly decided to go looking for her parents in Australia by herself and had never returned. Every once in awhile she wrote to him to let him know that she was ok and still looking for her parents, but in the last months she had only sent 3 letters, 3 including this one, and he had become so worried that he was planning to go looking for her by himself if she did not return or if she did not sent an owl saying she was going to before this Christmas.

Harry and Ginny had promptly informed the Weasleys about her letter, which also included an invitation to them to meet her at the Manor in the same day. Molly had fainted when she was informed, she was really worried at what could have convinced Hermione to live, at least for now, in THAT place. Arthur had been relieved but mostly had remained calm. George was worried but excited, he wanted to see her and involve her in some of his last projects for his magical jokes products. Charlie couldn't come since they had not been able to contact him in such a short time. Percy, Bill and Fleur would come with their daughter, who they had called Victoire. Luna and Neville would also come, each of them had received a separate invitation letter from Hermione, Luna had been her usual enigmatic self in reacting to Hermione's comeback - "Those who don't die twice almost always come back to us, I hope Hermione has not died a second time" she had said. All of them however, were to a significant degree both worried and relieved about Hermione being back. They cared about her, they were her friends. Harry went down with Ginny, had a fast breakfast with her, Teddy and Tonks, and around 9:00 am, all of them disapparated to reappear in front of Malfoy Manor, where their long lost and beloved friend awaited them.

Hermione was nervous, her friends would arrive at any moment now, and she would have to tell them everything, mostly tough she was relieved and excited, finally she would see Harry, her best friend, again! She would see Ginny and Molly and George and all of the Weasleys she had grown to love during the years. Some of her friends had not been invited, like the Patil sisters, Hermione only felt ready to meet her most close friends right now, she the others would see them in time.

Draco came to her in the Library to let her know that her friends had arrived and would be escorted into the large living room near the entrance by Winky. Hermione nodded and followed Draco to the living room.

When she and Draco arrived, they were already all there, Tonks already talking with Narcissa. Harry saw her, shouted her name and hugged her tightly, she hugged him back - "Are you alright?! Where have you been all this time? You made all of us worried sick! I was almost ready to go looking for you in Australia!" - Calming himself a little, Harry, after glaring suspiciously at Draco, continued - "tell us, we want to know the truth this time, we are not upset, not as much as we are worried however, why have you disappeared like this for so long and how it is that of all the places you ended up staying HERE? HERE, and with him?" -"Potter, I understand that this is not the the most endorsed place you and your reck.." - Hermione gave him a look - "heroic, Gryffindor lot would like to be in, and I may not be the most nice bloke around, but I am not some monster and I know how to properly treat a gue…" - "Enough Draco, Harry knows you are not a monster, you told me he testified for you at your trial, didn't he? However his concern at finding me here, considering what happened to me in this Manor, is fully understandable, and I will explain everything, now shall we all sit?"

For the following hour, among the shocked expressions of everyone present (except Draco and Narcissa who already knew everything) Hermione told where she had been and what she had done since the end of the war. She told them how she had found her parents house in Australia burnt down, how she had thought the death eaters had killed her parents and that she had pursued them for over an year. Many of them, George, Neville and Luna in particular, had eyes full of admiration and awe as they discovered that she was the anonymous "Huntress of Justice" who had been capturing Death Eaters in the last year. Most of the others, Molly especially, were impressed but it was clear they considered it very dangerous what she had done and would have done anything to stop her if they had known. Harry, at her tale of how she had captured Edward Dolohov, became particularly impressed. He and his team at the department of magical law enforcement had been trying to get him for months and had never succeeded.

Hermione shivered a few times when she told them about Dolohov's capture. Edward Dolohov had been the most difficult and dangerous one to get, for a while it was him who had captured her. She had come to know his location by the Death Eater she had captured before him. Dolohov was residing at a muggle farm, he had imperioused the muggle owners and lived at their expense. She had found the farm quickly and waited for an opportunity to enter the farm silently. when the muggles were away. Unfortunately Dolohov had caught her by surprise, he apparently saw her through a camera the muggles had installed at the entrance of the farm. When she had entered the bedroom of the muggle couple, a binding spell from behind had paralyzed her and she had been put on the bed, Dolohov interrogated her, wanting to know how she had found him and why.

She told him the truth, she did not desire to be tortured and she still thought she could overpower him by managing to remember how to do a wandless stupefy to stun him against the wall. When she had told him everything, he had become relieved and then grinned, showing an evil smirk. He told her how "occasionally", he had "fun" with the muggle female living in the farm and how it would be a waste to kill her without trying the same with her at least once. - "You see mudblood, your blood is dirt for sure, but the rest of you is too appealing to be killed without having fun with it for a while. Such a pity I burned your filthy muggle parents in their house without doing the same to that muggle mother whore of yours, but my colleague was impatient and he killed her before I told him my idea" - he was telling her that, then started to wonder if it would have been better having "fun" with her keeping her under the binding spell or by having her under the imperius like the muggle female. He was still debating with himself about it when Hermione, whose fear had made her memory work much faster, finally remembered and managed to do an awfully strong wandless stupefy spell who stunned him against the wall and and made him fall unconscious.

Hermione had been still very scared, what if he recovered and woke up BEFORE the binding spell he had put on her wore off?! Fortunately after an hour the binding spell had become weak enough for her to break it and she cast a binding spell of her own upon Dolohov just as he was beginning to awake. She then had disapparated with him to her hiding place, interrogated him under veritaserum and he had told her who had been his "colleague" for that mission, the one responsible for her parents death.

Hermione had been truly shocked when Dolohov said it had been Draco Malfoy who killed her parents. She thought he was somewhat redeemed, she had seen him hesitate at the Manor when he had not identificated Harry. She knew he had renounced to kill Dumbledore, so why had he killed her parents? Then her shock had quickly turned to anger, she had modified Dolohov's memory removing from him any memory about having met her, turned him over to the ministry, and had gone looking for Draco. Hermione did not tell the attempted rape part as she told everyone her story, it was something she had not even told Draco, as she was just trying to forget it.

Harry had a strange feeling when she talked about her capture of Dolohov, she was not telling them everything. He just knew it. Her expression was too composed and cold when she talked about it. Harry made a mental note to himself to ask her about it in private at another time. As she arrived to the Draco's kidnapping and then to the nightmares part, he grew concerned and felt guilt within himself. He had been worried about her being in trouble since she had left, but he had never thought about her mental state in being alone for so long after the traumas of the war. Most people, himself included, had dealt with some trauma after the war, but having friends or family near, most had dealt with it together and had healed. Being ALONE for so long had to have worsened Hermione's mental state dramatically. Harry's guess was confirmed as Hermione told them of her escape from the manor, her failure at the potion project, and her horrible night when her nightmares had come back forcing her to go back to the Manor. Yes, Harry thought sadly, she had felt it was better to go back to the Malfoys because she did not want them, her friends, to see her in that broken state.

After Hermione had finished her story, Narcissa invited everyone into the dining room to have lunch with her, Draco, Hermione, Teddy and Nymphadora before leaving. They went to lunch and the atmosphere turned slowly less tense. Narcissa was quite pleasant with everyone, even with Molly and Arthur, to whom she apologized for her and particularly her husband's behaviour in the past years towards the Weasleys. She seemed particularly pleasant and chatting with Harry, she asked him about his auror work, even offering to help for his future wedding with Ginny, a wedding they kept delaying hoping that Ron would wake up from his coma and that they would have him him there with them.

Draco, although being nowhere as pleasant as his mother, still managed to be mostly civil towards everyone. He was particularly nice towards his cousin Tonks and Teddy, but also towards Ginny, who he found he rather liked for her attitude, cheerful and badass at the same time, although she once managed to irritate the hell out of him and to (almost) make him blush furiously when she asked about his and Hermione's time together in his bedroom - "Tell me ferret dear, how are your other activities in the bed? Is she as sexually naive as she was over a year ago? She was never the shy type mind you, she was just too obsessed with her grades and the troubles Harry and Ron involved her in to bother much about the life's most spicy affairs…. Oh don't you dare tell me you two are not doing anything ferret dear, I don't believe you. I see the glances you two give to each other occasionally, you know. Really you are doing nothing?! You just sleep? Wow ferret, sleeping each night with somebody as her and never doing anything! I almost feel pity for you, ferret dear, at least Hermione has, HAD, her mental state to worry about and could not feel bad by not sleeping beside a ferret as good looking without attempting anything but you… ah Neville - " Neville was at the seat next to Ginny and was listening with a WTF sort of expression on his face - " Would you pass me the butterbeer bottle?"

The lunch finished and Harry, Ginny, Neville, Luna and the Weasleys after saying quite heartfelt goodbyes and making Hermione promise to visit them the following week at the Burrow, went home. Hermione felt relief and warmth within her. As Draco had told her they had quickly forgiven her, it had been hard to tell her story again, but after that all had gone well. She had her friends again! She was really content, she was not alone anymore! She had her friends once again, and now she had new ones… Narcissa, oddly acting very mother-like with her, and Draco, who she was fastly growing to consider as potentially more, perhaps even much more, than a friend. She had made quite a big effort to stay composed at Ginny's teasing innuendos. Ginny had nailed it. She HAD had her mental state to stop her noting Draco's captivating from sleeping with her each night, but lately, as she was slowly getting better each day, she noticed it and it was starting to drive her crazy. She NEEDED to do something about it or she would indeed go crazy soon for something other than her trauma.

Hermione thought again of how the day had gone, it was almost surreal. People who just a few years ago would have basically celebrated each other's death were pleasantly having lunch together, befriending each other and talking about the future, mourning what they had lost and enjoying what they still had, forming bonds of care for each other, almost always as at least people respecting each other, often as friends, sometimes, she thought with a hopeful sensation she did not dare turn into a coherent thought, as more than friends.

As she thought about this last line, she decided, she wanted to try to explore these feelings growing within her. She wanted to see where they would lead her. Furthermore, she wanted to prove to herself that while she still had a long way to heal properly, she was no more in the same scared and desperate state she had been just two weeks before. She would talk to Draco soon, not this evening maybe, maybe not the following morning, but she would talk to him, and if he did not feel something too, even though she was fairly sure he did, well at least she would have stopped deluding herself and would have gone back to develop their relationship as friends, who was going a little slow lately because of her thoughts about such non friendship-like feelings.

Hermione had gone to lab with Draco to help him again with the almost finished project, which according to Draco would be finished in a few days. She kept thinking about those feelings as she worked with Draco. They would figure out this, and regardless of the outcome, all would be well, because they would love each other anyway, either as friends or as something more. Because they cared about each other, and bonds of love are, fundamentally, bonds of care.


	10. Chapter 10: Old Faults, New Grudges

Chapter Ten: Old Faults, New Grudges

Narcissa Malfoy was having an afternoon tea, discussing plans with her niece regarding how to build a closed pool in a new structure within the large Manor's gardens, when an owl posed himself in front of the window. Narcissa opened the window, took the letter and began reading it. It was a letter from the Ministry! Could it be that perhaps Shacklebolt had finally allowed her a few days to visit her niece at Grimmauld Place? As she read the letter, Narcissa's hope disappeared, replaced by a pleased surprise. The Ministry was informing her that due to her husbands strong cooperation in helping capture many death eaters in the recent months, his sentence had been revised and changed. The change was from a life sentence to a period of ten years of House arrest, a prohibition of using dark magic ever again and of using grey magic for five years. He would have been released the following day. Narcissa was excited and relieved, Lucius would be coming back! While she blamed him for his support to the Dark Lord in the last war who had costed the family much and who had almost killed them, she still loved him. There were some issues however that with his arrival, Narcissa feared could arise. Beside her, all of the current inhabitants of the Manor were not at the moment fond of Lucius in the least. Draco actually loathed his father for how he had raised him according to his racist beliefs and blamed him for that and for what he had put the family through by supporting the Dark Lord. Then there was Winky, their new house elf had her own reasons for hating Lucius, reasons regarding her now dead friend Dobby, who had once been an house elf for the family and whom Lucius had mistreated horribly. What would she do seeing her late friends abuser coming back into the house? Nymphadora would probably be the one with less problems, at least if Lucius had, like Narcissa, at least partially changed into a more accepting person. There was another inhabitant of the Manor who remained and who would not be fond of Lucius, Hermione. The girl's attitude at Lucius return was what worried Narcissa the most. The girl was a reasonable and logical person, but right now she was still healing, and her reaction at the arrival of the former owner of the house in which she had been tortured was unpredictable and could set her healing process back. She would have to handle the issue very delicately and quietly tell the girl about Lucius arrival. Regarding Hermione, another problem for Narcissa was that Lucius could be expected to obstacle her plans about Hermione and Draco. Narcissa would have to talk to her husband and make him see that Hermione's marriage into the family would benefit the Malfoys greatly. She was not much worried though, there was the possibility that after all he had been through, Lucius opinions toward muggleborns had changed, like hers had.

At dinner that evening, Narcissa told everyone her husband would return at the Manor the following afternoon. The reactions of everyone were as Narcissa had predicted.

Draco coldly informed his mother that while he was extremely not pleased with this development, he would be fine with it as long as Lucius, he refused to call him "father", stayed as far away from him and Hermione as possible. "I will tolerate his presence in this house mother, but if he begins to bother me and Hermione in any way, or if he in any way obstacles her healing, I will lock him up in a separate room and you won't be able to stop me".

Hermione took Draco's hand, holding it tightly as she thought that the man who had been the owner of the Manor at the time of her torture, and that she had fought at the Department of Mysteries, would be coming back the following day. However she controlled herself and told Narcissa that she would try her best to be civil and to not let this new development bother her. - "I will try Narcissa, however, if he is less than civil towards me just once, I am not sure my tolerance will stand" -

Tonks had not yet spoken, there with Teddy in her arms, she listened as the others said their opinion about Lucius Malfoy return. Tonks was not particularly pleased at Lucius return, but not really unpleased either. Part of her hoped that Lucius had changed as his wife had and that she would be able to form at least a civil, if not friendly, relationship with the husband of her great-aunt. - "I hope he will be civil towards everyone, however Narcisa, if he becomes too unbearable I fear that I will have to end my period of visit in your house earlier than we thought. " -

Winky, who had listened carefully and with increasing outrage to what was being said, when was asked about her own opinion, answered with a question - "Lucius Malfoy is not an owner of this Manor in any way legally now right? He has only the right of residence here, as a permanent guest I understand " - As Narcissa nodded, Winky continued - "then Winky won't feel obligated to serve Lucius Malfoy in any way and hopes that Mistress Narcissa will not order her to do it. " After saying this, Winky left without saying another word for the entire evening.

Later, when Hermione had gone to bed with Draco, he reassured her about his father's arrival " - Don't worry, he won't be able to do anything, he can't use neither dark or grey magic right now and if he bothers you to much, you can always punch him with your hit-it-all style _ " Hermione laughed - " Sure, I would leave a punch or two for you too if you wanted to contri… wait a moment!" - Glaring at him she continued - " What is this new nickname? Since when you call me "hit-it-all"? - Draco smirked, the minutes before going to sleep were going to be fun.

The following morning, Hermione woke up very early, around 6:30 am, she wanted to sleep more but first she thought of getting a bottle of water in the living room since she was quite thirsty. carefully slipping out of Draco's arms, she went downstairs towards the living room. The weather was quite bad, there was a storm outside. Just as she reached the living room, a lightening of the storm enlightened the room showing a dark figure near the window. Hermione froze, as another lightening revealed better the figure, she let out a terrified scream letting fall on the floor the glass she had been holding who went into pieces. She had recognized the figure, the person near the window in the living room was the one she had been nervous about meeting since the former evening, even as she did not show it. That person was Lucius Malfoy.

Lucius was looking at the storm from the window in the living room, he had just come back after having been released earlier than anticipated from Azkaban. He was eager to meet once again Draco and Narcissa, but he had decided to wait until both of them would have supposedly come in the living room for breakfast. As he was looking at the storm, suddenly he startled. hearing a terrified scream just behind him, turning towards the scream, he was shocked, in front of him stood terrified the very scared figure of Hermione Granger, with her wand pointed at him.

What was the girl doing in the Manor? Thinking that first of all, for his own safety, he had to calm her and assure her he was not a danger to her, something that was very true considering the fact he could not use dark or grey magic, he spoke - " Good morning Miss Granger, I must say I am quite surprised to see you in my house. However, before I ask you what you are doing at my Manor at this early hour, I would like to assure you that I am not a danger to you. The war and Azkaban have changed some of my older beliefs, I do not consider you mud-muggleborns as inferior as I did before and even if I still did, I would not want to harm you without reason. I allowed you to be tortured here that time, but I assure you I did not like it one bit even then, such brutality towards a young girl in my house, regardless of her blood status, was awful to me even then. However even if I wanted to harm you, It would be quite difficult for me to do so, the Ministry has forbidden me to use dark magic ever again and grey magic for a period, so you have nothing to fear from me. Now, Miss Granger, I would suggest you lower your wand, then we can sit and ta.. "

"Is this suspicious man, which to Winky appears to be the wicked Lucius Malfoy, bothering Mistress Hermione? Does Mistress Hermione wants Winky to send him away flying out of the Manor gardens? Mistress Hermione has only to ask, Winky would be REALLY delighted to fulfill such a request from Mistress Hermione" Winky had a evil grin on her face as she finished the last sentence, then she went to look at Lucius Malfoy with an expression full of disdain.

"There is no need Winky, I do not believe he could be a danger right now even if he wanted to be, could you however go calling Draco and Narcissa and tell them to come here?" As Winky, a little disappointed, nodded and left, Hermione lowered her wand and agreed to sit down, told Lucius to wait for Narcissa and Draco that would explain everything to him about her presence in the Manor.

Narcissa arrived in the living room, excited to see her Lucius finally back, but also worried that he may have upset Hermione by meeting her like that in the living room as Winky had told her. Narcissa and Draco arrived in the room at the same time, both worried about Hermione. When they saw Lucius and Hermione sitting quietly on opposite sides of a large the couch however, their worry lessened.

Draco was angry, what had his father managed to ruin this time? He always fucked up his life, either by his raising him to believe in racist madness or by inviting to live a madman in their house. By the sight of him and Hermione rather quite demeanor his worry had lessened, but not much. - "Lucius, what a surprise to see you back so soon. I hope for your own good that you haven't done something to Hermione here, she is our guest and she lives here. I am not very pleased with your presence here, however if you manage to stay away from her and from me I will be mostly fine with it."

Hermione's panick attack had long passed by now, and having seen how Lucius Malfoy had been, after all, pretty civil and polite to her during her moment of panic, arriving as far as to apologize for what happened to her in the Manor, also saying he did not believe in pureblood suprematist ideals anymore, she felt it was right to say something, since Draco was being unnecessarily hard on him - "Draco, you don't need to be so harsh, he has been very polite and civil towards me before, he has not done anything to me. I came here to get a bottle of water and seeing his figure through a lightening of the storm, I panicked. He was very civil towards me and actually reassured me, he also apologized for what happened to me here that time. " -

Narcissa was surprised, very pleasantly so, at how the situation was developing. Apparently Lucius had somehow changed too, like her, at least a little during his time in Azkaban. It seemed he had been quite civil towards Hermione, and it was pleasing to see the girl trying to defending him in front of Draco. Perhaps Hermione Granger, soon to be Hermione Malfoy Narcissa thought, would prove valuable to the family also by helping significantly in mending the broken relationship between Draco and his father. For now however, she wanted to talk with her husband in private, to tell him of her plans and of the necessity that he tried to apologize about Dobby to their new house elf Winky. - "Lucius dear, I am truly glad to see you have returned, I am pleased to see nothing has happened between you and our beloved guest. Now would you like to come with me in our room. I am sure we are all still a little sleepy and would like to get back to bed for a while." -

Everyone agreed to go back to bed and Narcissa, once in her bedroom with Lucius, locked the door, casted a muffliato, put him on the bed starting to kiss him with passion and hugged him for while, happy to have him back and wanting to release her happiness openly now that they were alone. Lucius, kissed her back with the same now unrestrained passion and for a while they just stood on the bed holding each other, happy to be together once again. She then told a quite shocked Lucius Malfoy of the circumstances regarding Hermione's stay in their Manor and of her plans regarding the girl.

Lucius was not exactly pleased at first. He had not the same prejudices regarding muggleborns anymore, but the fact alone that Hermione was a muggleborn meant that she may adapt badly in a family such as the Malfoys, where being a pureblood also often meant refinement, self-control and noble manners that such a girl had most likely not been raised with. However, after Narcissa reminded him of the prestige, power and new talent the girl would bring to the family, he came to agree that such benefits more than made up for the other things. Hence, once Lucius agreed to help his wife in her plan, Narcissa went on telling him about their new house elf and of her link to Dobby. Lucius still did not like the elf he had so horribly mistreated much, he thought elves role and nature was to serve and Dobby totally refused that nature. He agreed however that such mistreatment of his own servant had been very unbecoming and wrong of him, so he accepted Narcissa's suggestion that he apologized to Winky regarding his mistreatment of Dobby. Lucius then settled with his wife in the bed, trying to rest. He had been surprised about the new situation in his house, but he was hopeful everything would work out well. His wife still loved him, the only problem was Draco. He had to mend the broken relationship with his son. He hoped Hermione would help him achieve that, the girl seemed willing about it from how she had defended him before. He also had to apologize to their new house elf. That would be more difficult, while he knew the apology was needed and right, his pride hurt at the thought of apologizing to an house elf regarding his mistreatment of another house elf. He would do it though, his pride had made him guilty of many things in the past. Old faults dating back decades to when he first joined the death eaters in the first war. Old faults that kept creating new grudges of people towards him, this time within his own family. He would make amends for it, and would not allow his pride to get in the way this time.


	11. Chapter 11: A Freedom of Truth and Love

Chapter Eleven: A Freedom of truth and Love

 **Note: This chapter has a sexually explicite scene, there is a warning at the beginning and at the end of it for those who want to avoid it.**

"Kabooom!" Hermione startled, she had fallen asleep in Draco's lab, while she and him awaited for the final brewing process of the locating potion. "What was that? Did we blow up something!?" Draco looked at her and grinned, "Course not, we have done it! The potion is finished! Now we only need to add a drop of your blood, drink it and we'll know where your parents are. Then we will go find them"

Draco was excited, finally his project would be complete! He would at last be able to give the Grangers back to their daughter and to their memory. His guilt would finally be able to start fading. The only issue remaining was a new one though, the Grangers daughter of course. He did not want her to leave, every day she was better and every day his fear of the day she would feel well enough to leave him and return to live by herself increased. It was December 21, around two months since Hermione had started living at the Manor, and in this time he had come to care more and more strongly for her every day, and to be also increasingly attracted to her, both sexually and emotionally. Sexually was hard not to grow more and more attracted to a beautiful witch you slept with every night without ever making anything sexual to her. It was a constant tormenting teasing that made your desire for her grow more and more every night. Emotionally, the days he passed in her company continued to make him feel more and more glad to have her around, and increasingly wishing to be able to have her around for much more than the few months required for her mental healing. Now they were going to find her parents, and then, he very much feared, she would be probably inclined to leave him and go to finish healing with her parents.

"Really? We finally did it? I can finally find them?" - "Sure you can, I am not used to brag about my successes if they are not a success, which they always are obviously. There was no way this project would fail with me doing it. Your encyclopedic know-it-all mind should know I am that awesome and not to be so surprised whe.. what are you..." She had suddenly threw herself into his arms and was hugging him very tightly, with her head buried in his chest. "Thank you.. for everything" Draco, slightly embarrassed but mostly quite pleased by her sudden act of affection, returned the embrace, which lasted a few long minutes, then, before pulling away, he whispered "you are welcome" into her ear.

Hermione took a knife and made a small cut on her hand making a drop of her blood falling into the cauldron of the potion, who then changed color. The both of them then, having drank a flask of the potion, "saw" where the Grangers where. Draco and Hermione had a vision of them, in which they were eating ice cream on a tropical beach, cheerful and carefree. Where was the place though? Draco and Hermione went to take a world map and using a pendulum, let the potion show them where the Grangers where. After a while,, the pendulum stopped on one place in the Pacific Ocean. They were in the Hawaian Islands! Now they had still to find out where exactly in the Hawai the Grangers were. To do that, they needed a map of the isles. Deciding that they would buy it right there and to go in Hawai by floo, what they needed was a Ministry authorization to floo into a foreign state. Since Hermione still did not want to be seen at the Ministry and to let know publicly that she had returned, it was Draco who in the following morning went to the Department for International Magical Cooperation, to get an authorization to connect his floo to one of the magical community in Honolulu, and to be able to use it.

Lucius Malfoy was getting frustrated, his composure and patience was on the point of breaking, once again, because of a house elf's disdain.

It had been since when he had come back at the Manor that he had tried to apologize to their new house elf, Winky, for his past mistreatment of Dobby. However, every time he got near Winky, the annoyingly stubborn elf did avoid him, at first even going as far as to make him fall on the ground whenever he got too near. Narcissa had then forbidden Winky to curse him and so the meetings of his Noble face with the floor had stopped, but still the annoying elf refused to stop by him and let him apologize. Enough was enough, nobody got to avoid and humiliate Lucius Malfoy for so long. With this determined thought in mind, Lucius put his plan into action. It was late afternoon, two hours before dinner who would be served at 8:00 pm. He went to find Winky in the large gardens of the Manor, where she was working on the construction of the structure who would in a few months contain a closed pool. He stealthy moved behind Winky, took some materials she should have moved shortly(using magic) to put it on the structure, and put them in a hidden place in the gardens. He then went near Winky, behind a tree, waiting for the elf to see that the materials were gone. After she saw they were missing, he talked, making his presence known to the elf "What you are looking for is not there anymore, however, I may be able to give away its... new location, if you do something for me. "

Winky looked at Lucius Malfoy, her eyes full of suspicion and disdain toward the former owner of the Manor. After a full minute of glaring at him, she spoke "If the wicked and vicious Lucius Malfoy is lying to Winky, he should think again about it if his face is not eager to meet the floor once more. Mistress Narcissa may have forbidden Winky from using magic again to cause DIRECT harm to Lucius, but many harms in life come indirect. Vicious and cunning Lucius Malfoy should know this truth well." Seeing that Lucius nodded, she continued "Well then, if Lucius wicked Malfoy is unusually but really not lying, he may tell Winky what he wishes in exchange for the materials location. "

"I merely wish for you to listen to me for a little." Hesitating a little but swallowing his pride who still was not entirely pleased to the prospect of apologizing to an house elf about his treatment of another house elf, he continued "I feel I own you an apology, Winky, for how I constantly mistreated your now deceased friend, and once house elf of mine, Dobby. While I never liked him and still, to a degree, don't, since Dobby was an elf too much rejecting of what I deem to be the role and nature of house elfs, my horrible treatment of him while he was my servant was unbecoming of a decent master, a decent employer, a decent wizard, even more unbecoming of the head of the Noble Malfoy House. For this, and for the decisive part my now dead sister-in-law, Bellatrix Lestrange, had in his death, I give you and to his spirit, wherever he may be, my deepest apologies." After saying this, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy made something that he would have never imagined doing in all of his upstart life towards someone he had always considered as mere servants, he bowed. He stayed so, deeply bowed, under the utterly shocked gaze of Winky, for two full minutes, before using "Accio" to return at Winky the materials he had hidden, then turned and said, before leaving "I hope that even if my apology is not enough for forgiveness, it is enough to make you understand that it is sincere".

In the following days, Winky, while still not talking to Lucius, did not avoid him anymore, and started treating as a normal guest. A week after, while he was in the gardens, he was approached by a determined-looking Winky, who said "Dobby 's spirit may not know of Lucius apology, but Dobby's most great desire was being free, and Winky thinks Dobby' would say that keeping grudges after receiving apologies is an harm to one person freedom. Winky does not know about that, but Winky accepts that she misjudged Lucius Abraxas Malfoy. Winky does not forget Lucius past, but she accepts his apology, and his stay as a proper guest of the Manor." After saying this, Winky left, leaving a satisfied and relieved Lucius to wonder about what she had said.

The morning after Draco and Hermione had decided that he would go to obtain the ministry authorization to floo to Honolulu, he went to get it. He got it fairly easily, and returned. In the afternoon, Draco and Hermione informed the other inhabitants of the Manor that they would leave in about two hours. Once they had packed the necessary for being away a few days, including a wizarding tent, within Hermione's magical purse, gathered into the living room, and went through the floo, to Honolulu.

Beyond the floo, they arrived into a pub, similar to the Leaky Cauldron but more enlightened, much more open toward the outside. An asian, japanese looking, around thirty years old, quite attractive witch wearing short trousers and a summer shirt greeted them "Welcome to you! You must be the british who requested a pass to floo here today. We get notified whenever something like that happens and it really happens much less often than I would like. I love visitors you see, more money for my pub, and hopefully more friends to swim with! I am Keiko by the way, I suppose this is your first time here can I help you somehow?"

Hermione saw Draco looking at Keiko just a little too much for her taste, and this bothered her much more than she wanted to admit. As she was thinking this, Draco spoke "Thanks, we would like to find a map of the isles, we would surely find it anyway sooner or later but we would be glad for help in sparing us time, do you have it or know where to collect one?"

Keiko smiled, slightly smirking, and answered "Sure I have some here!" - searching a few seconds in a drawer under the counter, she took a surprisingly modern map of Hawaiian islands and gave it to them, saying "It is just one sickle" - After Draco paid her, Keiko saw the opportunity to make the couple stay and… perhaps, delve DEEPER into the attractive features of the likely rich blonde guy. She was quite sure he was very well off, since she had heard that two blonde haired british wizarding families, the Greengrass and the Malfoys, were extremely well off financially and by the demeanour of the blonde bloke in front of her, he was probably a member of those families. Her pub wealth could greatly gain from the blonde's stay, and perhaps she would have some... fun. So she said "It is already late however, if you want a place to stay I have some bedrooms, otherwise I can advise you a few wizarding inns in the city. However I would be TRULY glad if the both of you stayed here for tonight. You could tell me about how has been the last two years in wizarding britain. I LOVE tales you know, especially when told by such... beautiful people".

As she said the last sentence, Hermione noted with an increasingly worried look bordering on horrified that while Keiko had referred about both of them, her gaze was intensely fixated on Draco. So, before Draco could even consider accepting her offer, Hermione answered first "Thank you for your concern, but, unfortunately, we are really on a hurry for our business, Draco, let's go." She almost dragged a dumbfounded-looking Draco out of the pub.

Out of the pub, they discovered it was in front of a beach, in a little area magically hidden to the muggles. They went on a fairly secluded spot of the beach and Hermione, after making sure none was watching them, suddenly threw her purse to Draco and told him "take, set up the tent while I put up the wards, we stay here until tomorrow morning".

Draco was unsure at the reasons for Hermione's irritated behaviour, and somehow offended at how she was deciding everything without ever asking his opinion, but he thought better of arguing and did as she asked.

After they had set everything up and settled within the tent, Hermione began preparing a dinner with ingredients she brought from the Manor. Draco helped her, but still they did not exchange a word until dinner. It seemed Hermione was decided at not talking. After they finished eating, Draco couldn't take it anymore. "Ok, would you mind to tell me what's bothering you so much? You have been like this since we got out of the pub, I did not say anything before, self-control is after all one of my many good qualities, but enough is enough Hermione, WHAT is going on?"

Hermione's reason for her irritation caused her to blush nervously at Draco's question. She was NOT looking forward to telling the arrogant ferret that she had been jealous. His ego was big enough as it was, feeding it more would make it run crazy. However, she was planning to tell Draco of her growing feelings about him for a while and, like it or not, it seemed the time had arrived to come out and say them. So, after a heavy sigh, she spoke "Fine, but then don't complain if you feel uncomfortable about the answer. " - Sighing deeply again, she continued - "I like you, ok? A lot. In the last month, by always being with you at the Manor, talking with you, working beside you on the potion, letting you keep my nightmares away sleeping in your arms every night, I developed… feelings for you. You are attractive, you know that yourself, and even if you didn't, your insufferably big ego would tell you. I don't feel just a… sexual attraction though, I feel more, probably much more than I would like to admit. I feel like the day you will say I am healed and must leave, or that you will… find someone to have relationships with, will just be a very tough day to swallow for me. When I saw that woman at the pub making quite obvious innuendo to you, and when I saw you looking at her with a… fascinated expression, I got scared ok? I feared the day when I would have to leave you would be coming soon. I-I understand if you don't feel the same way. If you do not feel comfortable continuing to be my caretaker after what I just told you, I will understand and when we find my parents, I will… stay with them and finish getting ok by being with them. "

Draco Malfoy was shocked, very , but after a few moments, more than shocked, he was pleased, pleased and extremely relieved. What Hermione had told him regarding her feelings towards him, was very alike what his own feelings for her were. The growth of those feelings with the time they had spent together in the last month. The fear of the day in which she would leave him. That fear had grown, like hers, lately, and finally had been pulled away by Hermione's confession. Now it was his turn to confess, and to pull away those same fears from Hermione. So he got up from his chair and went beside hers, took her nervous face between his hands and spoke " Keiko was attractive, sure, in other circumstances, if you were with someone else, I would have considered her for more than a short appreciative look. However, this are far different circumstances. The circumstances are very different, not just because I am still your caretaker and it would have been inappropriate and unbecoming of me to indulge in pursuing women while on this journey with you, but because you are not… with someone right now. I am in your same position, your growing feelings, the fear of leaving me, all of that, It also happened to me… revolved towards you. I want a relationship with you, a long, hopefully lifelong term one. Maybe it will be so, maybe it won't and it will last just a little, but I want to try it, because I like you too. So your fears are unfounded you see my adoringly mad know-it-all? We don't have veritaserum to make sure your stubborn mind doesn't doubt my honesty this time." His expression turned into a charming smirk and continued "However, perhaps we can come up with a fairly acceptable alternative, don't you agree?" After saying this, his face slowly came closer and closer to hers, until meeting it, in a union of lips and long held breaths, turning the nervousness of them into an increasingly unrestrained passion, both exciting and soothing. It was not a long kiss, but a brief and meaningful one, who showed both of them how much the other was serious about those feelings they had just confessed to one another. After he pulled away, he asked grinning "What do you think? Is my alternative acceptable?"

Hermione answered by getting up from her chair and kissing him, this time their kiss was a little longer, its passion being strong from the start. After she pulled away, feeling bold by the relief his confession had given her, she whispered in his ear "You know, maybe we could try this… alternative to the fullest and in a more… appropriate location, a location with a large bed, I have a feeling that it may help SO much in convincing me"

Draco almost could not believe how luckily this day was finishing. First Hermione had confessed her feelings for him, they both had said each other their own feelings, and now she wanted to be with him completely, in a sexual way. It seemed his nights of frustration at having her so near and being unable to sexually touch her had finally come to an end. So he said charmingly "I think you make a good point, now allow me to show you just HOW good that point is."

 **Beginning of explicite scen**

After saying this, he led her to the large bed they had also already set up in the wizarding tent and sat there with her. He started kissing her forehead first, then her cheeks, her eyes, worshiping every inch of her gorgeous and increasingly excited face. Then he kissed her lips again, this time more firmly, she was very responsive, moaning as he devoured her mouth. Pulling away a little, he whispered in her ear "I may have been unable, as probably you too even more than me have been, to engage in sexual relationships until now because of the war and then of the trials and of the project, but make no mistake. This does not mean I have not enough knowledge, although indirect, to make sure you will be completely and fully convinced of my honesty after we have finished this."

Hermione was feeling more and more excited, no that was the wrong word for how she was feeling. She wasn't merely excited, she was aroused, what he was doing to her and what he was still promising to do made her ache with desire. Her nervousness was fastly being replaced by a strong eagerness and impatience to explore the amazing sensations that were growing within her. So she spoke " Then why don't you start removing my clothes? After that, I will remove yours."

Draco answered by slowly removing her shirt, admiring her gorgeous body as it showed itself bit by bit while he unbuttoned it, then he went on removing her trousers. After this, she was left with just her black bra and panties which he stopped to admire a moment before continuing with his stripping tour. He, ever so slowly, removed her bra, staring amazed at her medium-sized and very nice breasts. Then he turned his attention at her panties, which he removed even more slowly as he massaged her legs with his hands as he pulled her panties away by them, making her moan again. He stared with amazement at her nude and aroused figure for a few moments before saying "If I had known they would have led me to this view, to this moment, I would have taken your punches much less unwillingly. Merlin! I would have eagerly taken five times your punches for this. You are stunning, so beautiful I would almost ask you to give me another just punch to be sure of not being dreaming."

Hermione blushed and smiled at his words at his words, saying "Oh you are not dreaming, and I assure you that you will feel it while I undress you since now it's my turn." With a mischievous look on her face, she went on removing the shirt and jeans she had borrowed him. Starting, like he had, by the shirt, she removed it less slowly than he had done with hers, then passed to the jeans, but by moving her hands along his now nude torso toward his groin, earning pleased sounds from him and a breathless request of not stopping what she was doing. "Are you sure now this isn't a dream?" As she said this she kissed his lower torso before passing to remove his jeans, unbottining them and revealing his erection showing from the boxers. Staring at it in arousal, she kept removing his jeans. When they were removed, moving her hands slowly around his erection, she proceeded to remove his panties. Looking at his nude, handsome figure, her arousal increased, she wanted him to touch her, to keep doing what he had started before by kissing her. So she expressed her desire, saying with a suddenly returned nervousness "I-I want you to continue as you wish from now on. I want you to touch me and… show me what you promised to."

"I am at your service, my impatient beauty, allow me to show you the depth and honesty of my feelings towards you" After saying this, he laid her on the bed and went back on kissing her with unrestrained passion, devouring her mouth again before lowering his attention to her neck, which he filled with slow and loving kisses who made her moans increase in passion and intensity. After this, he focused his gaze to her breasts, which he started slowly caressing and then kissing greedly. He passed afterward to stimulate her nipples, making her moans increase in intensity as she started calling his name among them. After a while, he turned his attention away from her breasts and toward her lower body, approaching her pussy, seeing its wetness increasing his own pleasure. As he started caressing it, after a few moments, used one of his hands to also stimulate her nipples. He felt aroused himself at caressing her most intimate spots, at hearing her increased moans caused by him.

After a while, Hermione was feeling close to climax, his increasingly rapid caressing, the feeling of his hands, of his occasional kisses on her mouth and on her body, the awe with which he called her name too at times, were making her feel close to coming. For the first time she would have an orgasm caused by a partner, not by her own self-masturbation. A few moments later so, at last she came, shaking in the pleasure of the orgasm.

Holding her through her climax, Draco waited for her to recover, then, slightly embarrassed, said "Are you ready… for the last step? We can stop her if you want you know?" After she answered "No, I want to do this, with you, tonight." At her consent, he resumed his intense caressing to be sure her arousal was strong enough to cloud at least part of the pain she would feel. Having then positioned himself at her entrance, suddenly very aware of what he was going to do, Draco remembered to quickly cast an anti pregnancy spell. Having done it, he looked into her eyes and said something he did not expect to say, but which in that moment just really seemed the only thing correctly able to convey what he was feeling "I-I love you" After saying this, he entered her, it felt amazing, like tasting a wine you found yourself wishing to keep drinking until you were completely intoxicated by it. Recovering a little from the shocking pleasure he was feeling, he remembered the pain he hoped she would not have felt. She did felt pain, but she didn't want him to stop , so she partially lied about its intensity. "D-don't worry, i-it worked, I did not felt most of the pain I think, k-keep going." Hearing her saying this, his concern vanished and his focus turned back on the overwhelming pleasure he was feeling even going at the slow pace he was going. While caressing her breasts and looking at her, he increased his pace. Stimulating her nipples more and more, after a while, among the feeling of her body and of their sweat and noises, his own pleasure now uncontrollable, he felt his own orgasm approaching. He called her name as he came, releasing his seed deep inside her.

 **End of explicit scene**

Afterward, he collapsed over her, then turned her on his top and held her in his arms, both of them content and satisfied, for a long while, until he said smirking "So, was my alternative to veritaserum acceptable?"

Laughing warmly, she answered "Oh it was, in fact, I think no veritaserum could ever be this convincing… and fun. I really look forward at... experiencing many more convincing attempts like this from you"

Not saying anything else, the both of them quickly fell into a content and peaceful sleep, filled with dreams void of nightmares and full of that pleasurable freedom that only love, like truth, can give.


	12. Chapter 12: All is One

Chapter Twelve: All is One

The following morning, Hermione woke up, like always did in the last two months, in Draco's arms. However, she realized, this time was very different from all the others. This morning, the arms surrounding her were not just the arms of her caretaker, they were the arms of her lover.

Her lover, Draco ferret Malfoy had become her lover, her first and possibly only one, it was so weird to think about it. Only a few months before, if someone had told her she was only months away from having sex with Draco Lucius Ferret Malfoy she would have told them to change pusher if they were muggles and to go to Saint Mungo's psychiatric ward if they were wizards or witches. However, in just a few months, she had ended up doing just that, did not regret it in the least, and hoped to do it many more times in the future. It had been fun and sweet, amazing, and the next times it would be even better since she would not feel any pain.

As she thought about the sex they had done the former evening, suddenly a realization hit her hard. Before entering her, Draco had told her he loved her! Sure, it could have been just the moment, but she doubted it. The moment was probably what had made him say he loved her in that specific circumstance, but it was not why he had said it. He was likely really in love with her! She felt warm inside as she realized it, looking at him in a new way as he still slept. However, did she also loved him? That was something she was still not sure of, she liked him a lot of course, but was she in love with him? She looked at his peaceful sleeping face, he was so cute when he was asleep! She stared at him for a while, thinking about her feelings. She was really unsure about it, she cared a lot for him, liked him very much, she also felt to have developed an emotional dependance from him. He was the reason she could sleep at night and had being healing in the last 2 months. One of the reasons she was terrified before of the possibility he would tell her eventually to leave was that she was extremely doubtful of her ability to be ok without him keeping away her nightmares and helping her heal. However, all those things did not mean she was in love with him. Deep down, she felt that she was falling in love with him, but that most likely the process had not been completed yet.

While she was still thinking about her feelings, she felt a mouth kiss her forehead and Draco's voice saying softly " Good morning love-it-all, did you sleep as well as me after our awesome evening?". After this act of tenderness, she felt something inside her melt, and she tightened her arms around him, buried deeper her face him, answering "I did, I truly did"

After staying like that a little more, the both of them got up from the bed, washed and set up their breakfast. At a certain point, Hermione reminded to Draco of the map Keiko had given them. All they had to do was to use it to find exactly where her parents where in the Hawaiian archipelago. After breakfast had been finished, they put the map on the table and, like in the Manor with the world map, they used a pendulum who, channeled through their arms to the magic of the locating potion, stopped on a specific place on a beach of the Maui island. Hermione couldn't believe it, finally they had found them! For over an year she had thought them to be dead, and now she was going to meet them again, alive! They needed a boat to get there, but Draco was against it "We would get much faster if we just go there by broom" . Hermione looked at him like he had said the earth was flat before shouting "ABSOLUTLY N-O-T! There is no way in motherfucking Merlin's hell I will ever fly on a broom ever again unless I have no choice"

Draco stared at her for a while, then laughed heartly for a while. However, at the glare Hermione was giving him, he quickly stopped saying "Sorry, but is totally amusing to see the great Hermione Granger, griffindor golden girl, who is said to have escaped the Gringotts riding a DRAGON, being terrified of flying on a broom ahahahhah ahhh!" What the hell! She had just punched him again! Not nearly as violently as the former times, but still it hurt. "Damn Hermione! I was only joking ok! We do not have absolutely to go by broom, but it would be much faster. " Seeing her still extremely contrarian expression, he changed tactic "Look we, can just go without you flying by yourself, we can be both on my broom, would that be better?" he approached her, kissing her hair as he said softly "If you really do not want even that tough, we will just look for a boat, even though it would take much more time. However think about it, we are so close, in less than an hour we may be there, do you really want to await possibly four hours before we finally arrive without magic?"

Calming under his touch and convinced by his words, she sighed heavily and agreed. They left the tent shortly after, took Draco's broom, and got on it. "Remember to cling to me very strongly, you ready Hermione?" Draco asked her trying to hide his excitement, it had been a lot since the last time he had flyed. "No, but let's go!". At her words, Draco started and went flying with her higher and higher, until they had an amazing sight of the Hawaiian archipelago. Turning towards Hermione, he asked "Are you ok?"

Hermione had been very nervous until then,, clinging as tightly as she could to Draco. Now however, she was more calm and amazed at the sight of the archipelago under them. "Yes I am fine… this sight is wonderful, it was worth coming bt broom just for this, it is really beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes it is, I knew you would have loved it" After saying this with a big satisfied grin on his face, he turned his focus on their surroundings and localized the Maui island, yes he thought, in less than half of an hour they would arrive.

During the following hour, Hermione, increasingly calm, enjoied more and more the journey and the sight it offered. The sea, the islands, the inhabited centers, it was all amazing to see from where they were. When they had almost reached the beach where her parents were supposed to be, she said hesitant "I-I really enjoyed this with you, maybe we can try it other times in Britain when we are back, can we? Draco stopped the broom, looked at her and with a triumphant smirk said "Of course we can!" Afterward, they resumed their journey and finally reached their destination.

The Grangers weren't on the beach, where only equipment and some tents stood. Draco and Hermione then turned their gaze towards the sea and, with a shocked expression, saw them. On the sea, not much far from the beach, two surfers had their fun among the waves. The surfers were Hermione's parents! Setting up their own tent and waring it, Draco and Hermione awaited for the Grangers to be back. After they got back changed, going to watch the sea sitting on two chairs they had brought, Draco and Hermione stealthy went behind them and Hermione restored their memories. The Grangers then turned back and saw them, getting up, whispered Hermione's name and rushed towards their daughter, crushing her with a double hug who lasted for a long while. After pulling away, the Grangers, Jeanette and Albert, looked angry at their daughter. "Explain, why, why did you do this to us? Why did you felt you had to change our memories?!"

Hermione felt uncomfortable, she really did not want to tell them everything at once, but perhaps at least that way she would be free of that weight who had worried her since when she had known her parents were alive. Would they be so too much angry with her? Perhaps so much that they would not forgive them? However, it was better to tell them all now and put this weight finally out of herself. Inviting them to sit down, she also sat down on a chair she conjured by using "Geminio" on thiers and began telling them the truth about her story. She told them everything that had happened to her since that day when she had modified their memories. She told them about how her changing their memories had been the only way to keep them safe, about the war, how the light side had won, she told them of what had happened later, of Ron's coma, of her looking for them and believing they were dead. When she reached the part about finding Draco, she stopped, unsure if she should be the one to continue and looked at him, her eyes asking him to continue the story from this point.

Gulping, feeling a little nervous at having to tell the Grangers about how he himself had modified their memories and about his role in the whole story, and also about his role about helping their daughter to overcome her mental traumas, he took over and started speaking. "I am Draco Malfoy. It is because of me that you are here and not in Australia, it is because of me that your daughter has believed you dead for over an year. I am very sorry about everything, I...I did the best I could, I hope that once I finish telling you my part in all this, you won't fault me for not having be able to do better." Sighing, Draco continued and told the Grangers how he had been tasked, during the war, to kill them together with Dolohov, how he found himself unable to do it and saved them, modifying their memories and the ones of Dolohov, making sure they would leave faking their own death by burning their house in Australia. He then went on telling them about Hermione's arrival at his house and her kidnapping him, about how she had discovered he was innocent and how in the end, seeing her traumatic mental state, he had settled to help her through it. After he had finished, he awaited for the Grangers to speak. It was their turn now to say what they thought of the situation.

The Grangers were shocked, even more so than when they had recovered their memories and seen their daughter. After that moment and their reunion with hermione, their relief had turned to anger, but now the anger was fading and turning into an even greater shock. Was this truly Draco Malfoy, the awful racist bully their daughter had often told them about when she came back for the holidays from Hogwarts? He seemed so… polite and nice, and what he told them to have done for Hermione little did fit with how they imagined someone like him to be capable of doing. Either he was tricking their daughter somehow in believing he had changed and manipulating her, or he had really become a decent bloke. In anyway, little could they do, their daughter was an adult, much more mature than her biological age suggested. Both her personality and her very hard experiences had made her grow up much faster than a person should have to, and they had to trust her judgment about the Malfoy boy. Exchanging a knowing look and nodding to each other, they decided.

Albert Granger looked to both Hermione and to the young Malfoy with a determined look and spoke "We are of course very shocked at knowing this all at once, it is a lot of water to take under a bridge, but we understand you two have been through a lot, a lot more than what such young people should face, and you only did the best you could under very difficult circumstances. Hermione, we would have very much preferred you told us what you wanted to do, we would have tried to stop you of course, but we had the right to know. However, we understand and we just cannot be really angry with you for doing what you thought was best under so difficult circumstances. Regarding your choice to stay with this guy you always spoke so badly of, we are worried but we have no choice other than to trust your judgment. Know however that our door is always open for you, and whenever you wish to come to stay with us or you need us in anyway, we will always be there for you" Looking at the Malfoy bloke, Albert Granger said "We do not fault you for anything. We are grateful you saved us under such difficult circumstances, the only thing we want to tell you is that if you are tricking our daughter somehow and are taking advantage of her, think again, she is too much clever to be tricked and if she discovers you are manipulating her in anyway, you will regret the day you are born."

Jeanette Granger then took the word, saying "I agree with all Albert said, I want only to add that if you ever feel like talking more about what happened to you Hermione, we will be ready to listen"

Changing suddenly expression from quite serious to cheerful and carefree, Albert Granger then exclaimed "Very well! Now that we settled the serious stuff, would you like some strawberry ice cream? It must be ages you eat one Hermy pumpkin come on! Then we can have a swim together and check your teeth!"

It so began a quite funny and totally carefree day for Draco and Hermione, one which they hadn't had from a long time. They ate, joked, went swimming in the sea, Draco even tried surfing, and after some total failure who embarrassed his pride greatly, in the end he somewhat managed to get slowly better at it. After dinner, the Grangers informed Draco and Hermione of how they had a set up a dental clinic in a center nearby and liked very much living in the hawaiian archipelago. They would have continued living there, but Hermione convinced them to set up a floo connection in a separate room in their clinic between the island and Malfoy Manor and promised them to keep in tough every couple of days by phone, also deciding with them a date for a videocall to do every week. Draco asked them to come visit the Manor for Easter and they agreed. Draco was quite satisfied, thinking pleased and mischievously at the face his father would have made at having to greet muggles into the Manor.

After agreeing to sleep setting their tent beside the once of the Grangers, Draco and Hermione went to bed. The following morning they helped the Grangers set up a floo connection after Draco went getting the authorization from the local MACUSA(Magical Congress of the United States of America) authority. Then, around the late afternoon, Draco and Hermione said goodbye to the Grangers and, through the new floo they had set up in their dental clinic, returned to Malfoy Manor.

Hermione was happy, relieved and feeling hopeful and cheerful regarding the future for the first time since the moments immediately following the battle of Hogwarts, her parents may live far away, a relative thing given the floo connection, but they were alive and doing pretty well. Finally, after a lot of time, things were starting to get ok once again. The only worry, a quite big one, mixed with a little hint of guilt, who remained within her was the one regarding Ron. She feared he would never wake, and felt guilty about not having visited him at Saint Mungo's anymore since when she had gone looking for her parents. She decided that in the following days she would visit him constantly, at least once a day, she would never avoid visiting him for so long ever again. Because he was one of her closest friends, she loved him dearly, he had been her first romantic love, even if for a quite brief time because of the attack and she hoped he would be able to move on from the fact she was now with Draco Malfoy. She would do all she could to help him, to help him move on and even to get on somewhat friendly terms with Draco. They had always been enemies for such petty reasons, mostly coming from Draco

who as had apologized to her there was no reason he couldn't apologize to Ron for having always insulted his family at school because of their unwealthy status.

Healing, that was what everyone needed, more than ever in these troubled times when many like members of "Twilight of Purity" turned to revenge and hate. She would do everything to help healing in her little and one day she would bring this ideas of hers further, becoming ministry and making pass laws against every discrimination towards non-humans magicals and showing everyone how ALL was ONE. All was connected, all of the people, of every race and magical or non magical background, were one wonderful network, all deserved respect and a chance at happiness and she, one day, would show this at all Wizarding Britain.


	13. Chapter 13:Who Awakens and Who Hates

Chapter Thirteen: Who Awakens and who Hates

Draco and Hermione returned to the Manor finding Narcissa in the living room reading a book on how to magically enchant pools. They had decided to tell her about the new status of their relationship immediately, since they knew she would find out anyway. "Hello mother! We have returned just now, how have you and Winky been?"

Narcissa, turned her attention away from her book, looked pleased at the returned couple. Observing them well, she noted how they were closer to each other than usual, their hands almost touching. Was it possible? Could her plan have worked really as well as she had hoped? Praying the fates it had, she answered to greet her the couple "Welcome back Draco dear! I and Winky have been quite well, the closed pool in the gardens has been completed finally. If we want we can welcome the next year with a bath! Also your father has been quite well. He really reconciled with Winky did you know? And welcome back to you too Hermione! I truly hope the journey went well, did you find your parents dear?"

Draco answered first, already having noticed his mother pleased expression after she had looked at them more closely "I am pleased about these news, we have also good things to tell you. I will leave the pleasure of telling you to Hermione tough"

Hermione was embarrassed at what she was going to do. Admitting to Draco ferret Malfoy mother, Narcissa, that she was now in a romantic relationship with her son was not something she would have ever thought to do. Now had happened though and she really wanted it to continue, she spoke "We found my parents! I have no words who would be enough to express my gratitude to you and your son for all the help you have given me. I will always be grateful to you for what you did for me and my parents. They are currently living in the Hawaiian island of Maui, where they have opened a dental clinic… a place where you can go to heal your teeth. Anyway, they are fine, we set up a floo connection between the Manor and a separate room of their clinic and have invited them to visit the Manor soon. Also I… have something else to tell you. While I and Draco were there we had a… development in our relationship. We have come to like each other more and more in the last months and while we were in Hawaii, we confessed our attraction and… now we are together, romantically. We are a couple now."

Narcissa smiled pleased, finally it had happened! The second part of her plan, making those two spend enough time to get attracted to each other and become a couple had worked! Very satisfied that once again her plan seemed to be working perfectly well, she answered "Oh these are good news indeed my dear girl, I am pleased with this development, you two are good together. I could see it in the months you have been with us. Now, I hope that, thanks to this new development, you will continue living here well beyond the time needed for healing, am I correct? Ah, naturally I am pleased about your parents. We did only what we felt we owned to your family Hermione dear, but we accept your gratitude. Also, your parents are of course welcome to stay at the Manor."

"Thank you, yes I would like to keep living here, if you don't mind of course. Now we and Draco would like to go to our room and unpack our things. We'll see you at dinner shortly. Thank you again" After saying, this, Hermione went back with Draco to their bedroom and started unpacking everything. Afterward, she collapsed on the large bed, very tired. It had been a long day, she had even flied! All she wanted at the moment was to rest in her new lover's arms, but she knew that would have to wait after dinner.

Closing her eyes, she relaxed a little, feeling a moment later a warm mouth kissing her forehead "If you want I can tell my mother you are too tired and we can dine later here you know?" Draco's soothing voice tempted Hermione, it would be so good to just say yes and sleep, but she had told Narcissa they would have seen her at dinner and she intended to keep her word. So, refusing Draco's offer, after a while they went to dinner, ready to meet again Winky and Lucius.

Lucius Malfoy was frustrated, dinner had just ended and his son had barely acknowledged his presence. It seemed he had decided to keep ignoring him. Well, that would change. He had managed to reconcile with an house elf, there was no way he would not be able to make peace with his own son. Hermione, his son's girlfriend and in his wife plan his future daughter-in-law, had gone off to bed since she was very tired. Lucius was very pleased at this development. He had come to appreciate the girl and had even began to care for her to some extent, she would be indeed a very good addition to the family. Before Draco followed Hermione, Lucius told him they had to talk, privately. His son, albeit with an annoyed face, agreed to go with him in his private office.

After they were inside, Lucius closed the door and looked at his son's cold face. It did not matter how much time he would need, he would remove that coldness from his son's face, a coldness that lately was always present when he looked at him. Sighing, Lucius spoke "Draco, I have been quite pleased this evening to know of your new relationship with our guest. As you know, I approve of your mother plan for her. I wish you the best in making this relationship a permanent one. However, I am not pleased with your constant dismissal of my person."

"My "dismissal" of you is something whose reasons you should know very well, you reap what you sow, never heard this saying, "FATHER"?"

Draco was so mad, how dared this pathetic excuse for a father, the one who had made him grow up with such crazy ideas who had put their whole family in danger, pretend to be forgiven just like that?!"

"The saying you cite is well known to me. Also, it is certainly true and I understand your anger. I can't go back and undo my mistakes Draco, I am ashamed of them and you will always have my apologies for them, but I can't undo them. What I can do is try to make up for them by being a more decent father for you in the future. Hate and resentment and anger are a very unhealthy weight to carry son, it is a weight that slowly crush you and make you fall on unknown abyss of suffering and darkness. I will live probably for more than half a century, you for much more, are you sure that you are ready to live so much with this hate towards me to slowly poison your mind? Deep down you already know I am right. I will wait for you son, but believe me, before this year comes to an end, you will come to me. Now I have to go, your mother wanted to see me to discuss more about the pool Winky had just finished building in the gardens." After saying this, Lucius left the room, leaving Draco shocked to think about his father's words.

Narcissa was in the closed pool building in the huge gardens of the Manor, awaiting for Lucius. Finally the pool was complete and functioning. It was a very large pool, half of it was quite deep, the other was much less and enough short in depth that a child of around 1:20 meters of height would have touched the base with the feets. After a while, Lucius arrived in the structure, closing the door and locking it.

Looking at his husband, Narcissa saw his slightly frustrated expression. Apparently the first meeting with Draco he had wanted to make hadn't gone very well. Going to him and kissing him softly, she said "Did your first attempt at talking with Draco go so bad?" As he told her how the discussion had gone, she said "You did well, I am confident he will see soon that all this resentment is bad for him."

Seeing his still frustrated expression and then looking at the pool, a new, bold idea came to her. Yes, it would be a truly magical way to inaugurate the pool in a very "intimate" and private manner she thought mischievously. "Do you like the pool Lucius? I know I had asked you to come here to talk about the structure decorations, but I think I have something much better in mind for this pool… and for us right now"

 **"Beginning of explicit scene"**

After saying this, she extracted the wand and pronounced a spell who began slowly undressing her. "Why don't we inaugurate this pool in a more "private" manner, under the water surface, it would be a perfect way to check the good "functioning" of the pool, don't you agree... Lucius?" As she said his name seductively, now completely nude, she began kissing him again with passion. he didn't answer, but he also extracted his wand and pronounced three spells. One to undress himself too, one for the two of them to be able to breath for half an hour underwater, and one for keeping their bodies from floating back to the surface once under water.

Taking Narcissa in his arms, excited and pleased with the development his mischievous wife had uncovered, he kissed her deeply, then after whispering in her ear "I love your suggestion, my mischievous, beautiful nymph, let us explore these waters together" he jumped with her in his arms into the pool deepest part. Kissing her again as their bodies kept going deeper into the pool, he began caressing her breasts and her pussy, with the slow, skilled touching of an experienced lover.

Their moans did not register to the ears into the water, but their expressions spoke well for them. Reaching the base of the pool, Lucius put his wife under him and began to devour her body slowly with his mouth, her face, her chest and, at last, her pussy. After a while, she pulled him away, once again a mischievous look in her eyes. This time, he was under her and she was the one to devour, earning unheard moans from him.

Reaching his fully erect member, she started teasing it, first with her hands and then with her tongue, until, suddenly, she took it into her mouth, bringing his unheard moans to new heights. A few moments of heaven later, Lucius pulled her away from his lower part, he took her into his arms,and looking at her both sweetly and with lust in his eyes, started very slowly to bring them back to the surface.

As their journey back to the surface started, they joined in an embrace of all of their bodies. Their lips kept joining, their arms surrounded each other, and the completely erect member of him had began thrusting within her. After a while, both came almost simultaneously, getting their heads out of the surface a moment later.

 **"End of explicite scene"**

"I so much hope this won't be our last exploring of these waters my dear, this nymph needs constant contact with the waters" Looking at her satisfied expression, he kissed her once again before saying back "Oh It is really a good thing, since you see my sweet, I really happen to have gotten exactly as… enamored as you with these waters" After saying this, the both of them got out from the pool, wore back their clothing and went to bed.

In the following days, Hermione began visiting Ron every day, staying at his bed for a whole hour in the afternoon. Draco was feeling slightly jealous at this development, but had the good sense of not showing it.

They passed Christmas quietly, exchanging presents everyone appreciated. Draco even gave a present to his father, not saying much to him other than "Merry Christmas" but this already cheered Lucius mood a lot and made him hope well for the future.

After a few days, in the afternoon of December 28, while Hermione was at Ron's bed, finally, he awakened from his long coma. Looking at her with a still weak but relieved expression, he said "Hello Mione, what day is it? Did you got that bastard death eater who made me fall?" Feeling tears falling already from her eyes, she crushed Ron in a long, tight and strong hug. Returning the embrace, Ron whispered in her ear, "Really, how long was I asleep?"

Hermione pulled slowly away, her great relief and joy at seeing him awakened now fastly leaving place to nervousness. She had to tell him not only that it had now been almost two years since when he had fallen into the coma, but also of her relationship with Draco. She felt a strong pain in her heart at this, and she knew she couldn't do that the first day he had woken up. She would tell him tomorrow.

"It has been almost 2 years, now it's… 28 December 1999. I am so happy you are back! I always hoped you would awake but… sometimes I doubted and it hurt so much. Harry must know you have awakened! And your family! I am going to call them, then they will come. I… I have to leave for today, but I will come back tomorrow and we'll talk a lot! I promise!" After saying this, she left the room, leaving a confused but still relieved and happy Ron to await for his friend and family.

The young woman, merely a girl just become of age, got out of the meeting. She was thin, with black short hair, her chest relatively small, with an extremely pretty face, whose blue eyes though, showed a look colder than ice. As she went toward the Saint Mungo's psychiatric ward to check on her little brother mental hell, she thought of the meeting. It had gone well, many more people were starting to see the truth. To have justice, peace, revenge was needed. Healing was just an empty excuse the pureblood scums had always used in the past to avoid punishment for their crimes. Not anymore. For her parents memory, for her brother, for all the people those scumbags had hurt, payback would come this time, and no ridiculous pretense of forgiveness or of having been imperioused or to have cooperated would save them.

Arriving to the ward where her little brother was kept, the medi-witch assigned to him greeted her "Hello Miss Chase, your brother has not shown improvement this day, I am sorry. he keeps looking through the vacum, and is very easely triggered. When the triggering happens, like always, the screams begin and afterwards he cries and then sleeps. Sometimes, even without triggerings, he starts screaming by himself, as if his mind periodically got back to the tortures by itself. Tell me, Irene, why do you keep doing this to yourself? He can't heal, if you go near him you will only hurt your heart, like every time"

Irene looked at the medi-witch with a cold, determined expression in her eyes "Miss Blythe, I will tell you this just once. I thank you for your concern but it is not needed. I will go near him everyday that I can. I am the only one who can understand him. And his sight can't hurt me. A broken heart can't be harmed"

After saying this. Irene went near her brother, who was sleeping at the time. Looking at him, her hate for those who had caused this to him grew. She hated them, all of them. Purebloods, even slytherins. Even those hypocrite supporters of "healing" Bah, what a bullshit that word was. Her brother would never heal, and no amount of fake apology from those pureblood scumbags could make him come back to the cheerful and inquisitive little boy he had been.

After a while more, fighting back tears that occasionally threatened to come and break her cold resolve, she left the ward and got home, taking a modified version of a dreamless sleeping potion. It made her rest less, but at least it did not cause addiction. She took it since the end of the war. She had no times for nightmares, she had no time to cry, she did not want that, only revenge would give her peace, and with it, justice.


	14. Chapter 14:What is Lost won't be Love

Chapter Fourteen: What is lost won't be love

"Blimey Harry! You are really getting married to my sister? In two months? And you really were only waiting for me to wake up?!" Ron was surprised, he really had missed a lot. Harry had began working at the Department of Magical Law Enforcements, as an Auror! Neville was working hard to become an herbologist and was together with Luna. Hermione had found her parents and restored their memories after a year of looking for them.

Harry didn't want to tell him anything else about Hermione though, saying the rest was something that she had to tell him herself tomorrow. This confused Ron a little, what could there be of so fucked up that she had to tell him personally? Had she been hurt badly in some way? Well, he would know soon enough.

After a while also his family came to visit him. His mother hugged him so badly he really thought he would die choked by her. Everyone was so happy to see him and he was glad to have made it. However, all the time, he kept thinking of one person who was not there, who had said she would came back tomorrow. What would Hermione tell him?

"So, you are going to the Weasley today? Are you sure you are safe in telling him that you are with me now? He always had the most impulsive and shocking temper among you rec… I mean heroic griffs. He may say some crazy spell and harm you, if he does not die before from the shock that is. The poor bloke will be horrified to know you have indeed awakened and chosen the best, it is understandable after all, commoners always feel envy towards ahhhh! Damn it you hurt me in the stomach too this ahhh!"

"Did you say something about Ron Draco? You know I did not hear you well, "dear"" When Draco shook his head, Hermione, satisfied but still annoyed, went to the bathroom of their room and shut the door violently. Damn that ferret! Why did he never learn?! She was already extremely nervous that she had to tell Ron about her relationship with Draco, and that idiotic and ridiculously jealous new boyfriend of hers was not helping at all. If he kept annoying her like this she may end up killing him, well that at least would have freed her from the task to have to tell Ron about their relationship.

Draco was hurting in the stomach and in the foot where his "lovely" girlfriend had hit him, damn it, why did he have to find such a violent girl as his romantic partner! When he would have asked her to marry him, after her acceptance he would pretend that they married with a magical bond who would prevent them from using violence on each other!

No, he wasn't jealous, he could not be jealous of a Weasley, it was simply not possible, wasn't it? Furthermore, Hermione would be going to tell him that they were together, nothing at all for him to be jealous, on the contrary! Yet, this bothered him, the Weasley comm- boy, it was better not to think those things to avoid saying them if he did wish to avoid being punched again. That Weasley, had been Hermione's first real love. Sure, she had other small "flirting" short relationships at school, like with Viktor gorilla Krum, but the first real love had been that comm-that one.

What could he do if seeing him this afternoon she decided that after all, he was the one she loved, not him? Well, he couldn't avoid it, he would have to hope that the commoner redhead did receive what hermione told him he she would give him, a revelation of the new relationship between him, Draco, and her. Damn it! Why couldn't he find it in himself to avoid calling like that? Well, it was irrelevant, he would have just to hold its tongue until he married her, then he would make a magical bond that would keep him safe regardless of how much his tongue went free.

Ron was relieved when he saw Hermione enter his room at Saint Mungo's that afternoon, finally he would know what she had to tell him personally! "Hello Mione? Harry told me you had to say a lot of things personally to me, that he could not say himself. He scared me, tell me did something bad happened? Did someone hurt you? Was it the fucking ferret?"

Hermione swallowed hard, she had to tell him, now, and get over it, there was no way around it. "N-no, it's not like that. Draco didn't hurt me." At this Ron's face got perplexed, "Why are you calling him by name, did hell froze and you became somehow friendly with the ferret?" Hermione sighed heavily, swallowing again before continuing "A-actually, we became more than that. Since… a week basically, he is my boyfriend."

Ron stared at her, why it was him that had always the most crazy nightmares? And why did he not wake up? Shit! This was not a dream wasn't it? Hell had not just froze over alone, Heaven had become surely become also a huge ice cube. WTF? Why couldn't he have awakened just a month earlier? Why had he to survive a fucking war, just to fall into a coma and wake up a week after his girlfriend had found another bloke, the bloke he had always and rightly so, hated with all himself? The bloke from whose insults and belittling he had often defended her from? What for Merlin motherfucking balls had he done to deserve this? Anger and frustration growing inside him, he looked at his now ex-girlfriend, a person he still loved dearly, with hurt in his eyes, and just three words splitted out of his mouth, almost a whisper "Tell me how"

Fighting the tears who were threatening to fall from her eyes, Hermione answered "A-after you fell into a coma, I was devastated ok? The war had just ended and I thought everything was going finally to be ok and then that happened to you. I just wanted things, at least some things, to start to get ok, so i went looking for my parents, hoping that at least i could have them back. B-but I didn't find them, their house in Australia was burned, and thinking they had been killed, I spent over an year looking for the death eaters who may have killed them. After one death eater told me it had been Draco to kill them, I went looking for him. I captured and used veritaserum on him. H-He was innocent, he actually had saved my parents, changing their memories to send them away when he was sent to kill them. T-then i broke. I had been alone for an year and an half, hunting death eaters, and my nightmares had become more and more stronger. I couldn't be alone. So I was taken in by the Malfoys. They helped me get better. and helped me find my parents. I found them with Draco , we have become a-attracted to each other since I started living at the Manor, and then.. it just happened. We got together. I-I am sorry you had to wake up and discover this just after a day, but I-I still love you Ron, you will always be one of the persons I love the most, like Harry, it's just we are not in a relationship of a...romantic kind anymore. " After a while of him not saying anything, she spoke "Ron, please say something"

What could he say? He didn't know what to say, never in a thousand years would have he expected to find himself in such a crazy situation. He felt hurt, but not much angry anymore, more sad, extremely so. he just wanted to sleep again, to wake up and maybe discover it had all been a dream. He just wanted to be alone, to think and… cry, he was allowed to cry right? Shit, even if he had done something so bad in another life that he had deserved something like this, he could cry right?

"Leave me alone. J-just leave now Mione, please" He saw tears falling from her eyes in the same moment they started falling from his own eyes too, as she left and softly closed the door. In the following hour he did it, he cried, crying the loss of the hope of something more with the friend he had been through so much with, a friend he had loved, that he still, even after this,very much loved.

Draco was nervous as he awaited for Hermione's return. He knew that he had no reason to be, but emotions did not always listen to reason. As he was in the potions lab trying to relax by brewing, his father entered the room. What did he want? He was mostly ready to forgive him right now, or at least to try starting over, but he had still refused to go to him and say it. His pride stopped him. Now that he was here though… maybe

"Good evening Draco, I take that you are trying to avoid thinking about my future... daughter-in-law talking with the Weasley boy about your relationship. Oh do not look at me like that, I was a Malfoy much before you were born, and I have my ways of knowing things. Would you like to come in the pool with me to test the warming potion for the pool you had finished preparing this morning? Your mother would like to know if it works before dinner"

Reluctantly agreeing, as it was after all another way to relax his mind, Draco took the warming potion from the lab and went with his father to the pool. Spilling half of it into the waters of the pool, after a few minutes they became warm and hot, almost thermal like. "The effects last for about two hours. Maybe if I work on it again I can double the time though. After his father had nodded and said he was going to tell his mother, Draco stopped him "F-father, wait." Sighing, Draco said it "I don't know if I can forgive you, yet. However, you were right, hate does not serves other than our own pain, I guess we can at least try to start over. I just wanted to say this, I will go back to the lab now, I will see you at dinner."

Lucius, feeling triumphant and relieved, answered smiling pleased "Of course, to later. I am pleased to see you have decided to not let hate blind you. I expected no less from you." After saying this, son and father separated, both going different directions, but with their spirits much closer. Even after all that had happened, they still loved each other, that had not been lost in the turmoil of years of wrong teachings and of the war.

In the following days, Ron got better and was able to be released from Saint Mungo's just in time to spend the last day of the year with his family at the Burrow. It was a great event for the family. It was not just a farewell to the old year and a welcome to the new one, it was a celebration for his awakening from the coma. Even George cheered him and said that "If my fellow life-long associate and brother , Fred, was here, he would say that we always knew Ron, that you were a tough Weasley not to bet against in big things. That is why we always did bet against you in the small ones of course"

After everyone laughed, George had finished "Welcome back Ron!" and started applauding him with his whole family. His mother was in tears as he opened the sparkling wine to welcome the new year at midnight. Ginny and Harry were with him as George made the best fireworks shine over the burrow.

Everything was perfect. Only one person lacked, a lack that dearly hurt his heart whenever he remembered how often he had seen her in those rooms with him and Harry in so many years. Then he remembered what she told him. She had told him she loved him still, and always would have. He felt the same, and although right now the end of their relationship still hurt so much, the most important thing among them, love, would not be lost. They, he realized, would be best friends, in some time he would feel better about this thing and would feel ok in seeing Mione again. Well, maybe not the fucking ferret she was now with, but one things at a time was the key.

Thinking this, he felt a weight leaving him, and he kept enjoying the party, his party, his welcome back into the world, among people who loved him and who he did love in return.

Irene felt cheated. How the hell was possible that their coward excuse of a leader of their TOP section of Northern London, where she lived, had voted against a march against purebloods in Diagon Alley? Damn that coward and his ridiculous excuses that they would alienate themselves the sympathy of many by "disturbing" the public "peace" Bah, what peace, only after purging wizarding society of the scum, by sealing the magic of all the purebloods, and by taking away their children making them raise by muggleborn tutors, peace would be real and not an empty, fragile ghost. It was exactly because the non purebloods had always been scared of disturbing too much the system that everything had never changed.

As she thought about these things, alone in her apartment, she checked the clock, it was 1:00 am of January 1. The new year had come since an hour. She thought of her brother. She would have given everything to see his pain end, to see his curious eyes and his cheerful smile back on him. He was the last one she loved who she had left. The rest of her family was dead, her old friends from Hogwarts had either died in the battle or refused the TOP message, buying the "healing" bullshit propaganda and so she had stopped seeing them after a while.

She still loved them, despite everything, her love for them had not been lost, even if her hate stopped her from showing it anymore, the love inside her was alive, it had never been lost.


	15. Chapter 15: Chess Before the Storm

Chapter Fifteenth: Chess Before the Storm

 ** _DAILY PROPHET 8 January 2000 page 3_**

 ** _...TWILIGHT OF PURITY on the rise. Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt, accused by its leader, Arnold Armistead, to be unfit for the role due to his blood status. Mr Armistead claims that Minister Shacklebolt is inadequate to lead the post war Ministry and properly destroy the "hateful racism" that caused it because of his being a pureblood. Mr Armistead, in a short interview he conceded to our gazette, said that "Our current Minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt, while had a prominent role in the military defeat of the criminal and terrorist Tom Riddle, is not fit to serve as a Minister in current times. In fact, his pureblood status is a perfect indication of how he simply cannot understand what needs to be done to purge Wizarding Britain of the racist, pureblood poison that caused two wars in the last three decades. The privileged blood status of the current minister makes him naturally biased about the issue and makes him unable to consider the changes needed to properly lead our society towards the peaceful and just future it deserves "_**

Kingsley Shacklebolt was annoyed, no, he was more than annoyed, he was exhausted. It had been almost two years since he had become Minister for Magic at the end of the war. At first it had been a tough job sure, starting purging the ministry departments of Voldemort supporters, processing death eaters, organize the capture of those who were still free. Managing the rebuild of Hogwarts and of other wizarding structures, mostly using the money taken to the pureblood families who had supported Voldemort. It had been a tough job yes, but it had been manageable.

For a while it had gone well, then, after six months, TOP had happened. Claiming that the Ministry was doing a poor job, like in the aftermath of the first war, to give justice to the victims of the war. Claiming that it was too soft towards the main groups who had birthed the biggest number of death eaters and Voldemort supporters, purebloods and slytherins.

Under these claims, a diverse group of victims of the death eaters came forward challenging hs managing of the situation. The group, "Twilight of Purity"(TOP), contained people who had family or friends killed or tortured to insanity by Voldemort supporters during the war, or also who had been gravely hurt themselves. Under the leadership of Arnold Armistead, muggleborn, a former auror of around 40 years old, whose whole family had been killed by death eaters during the war, the group had began gathering supporters. In time, the organization had made its own political structure, organizing itself in sections in the various parts of the country, and its own political program.

Mainly, TOP espoused three key policies that directly went radically against the Ministry ones: Sealing of the magic of all the purebloods, taking their children away and make them raised by muggleborn tutors, abolish the Slytherin House at Hogwarts and redistribute its students among the other three houses through a resorting.

Kingsley shuddered at the thought of someone implementing those awful policies. Slytherin students would be split and divided, leaving their friends. Adults for no other guilt than their blood status would be essentially cut from the thing most important to them a fundamental part of their identity, their magic. Many would probably commit suicide rather than live without it.

The most awful thing though, Kingsley imagined with horror, would have been the children separated from their families, their parents and given to unknown people, just because of their parents blood status.

Having finished reading the Prophet, he sighed and answered the knocking on his office. Headmistress McGonagall entered in the room, her severe gaze cracked by concern.

"Good morning Minister, I assume you just read today's Prophet. It is worrying, this hate who is spreading. Also at Hogwarts there is a growing disdain among students towards slytherins, especially those coming from pureblood families. Bullying and discrimination cases towards those students are growing dramatically."

Minerva McGonagall thought in saying this at her time as headmistress since the end of the war. Her situation had been similar to Kingsley's. At first things, albeit difficult, had proceeded well. Rebuilding had began quickly, they had received help by the Ministry and many volunteers had helped. So, they had been able to reopen the school for the following September. After the reopening though, troubles had began. Slytherins were looked upon with a mixture of fear and disdain by many of the students of the other houses. Bullying cases towards them began to be referred to her.

She had tried to stop the situation promoting joint houses activities, in which the slytherins always worked together with members of other houses, but somehow this had backfired and had made things worse for the slytherins who were now often bullied also at these activities. So, she had stopped the joint activities and had resigned herself to hope that in time healing would come by itself. Unfortunately, not only such healing had not come, but after the rising of TOP, a group of its sympathizers had born into the school worsening the situation.

"Headmistress, good morning to you too, If you wish to sit down…" After Minerva had sat, Kingsley continued "As you know the TOP issue has grown dramatically in the last months, they have the support of about 30% of the public, It's still not enough for them to win an election against me, but if they keep growing like this, two years from now when it will be held… let's just say that many people would have to leave Britain to avoid the draconian policies the newly elected government would implement. I called you here to discuss the issue of the abolition of the House of Slytherin promoted by TOP. Among Hogwarts students, what do you believe it is their opinion on the matter?" Kingsley took a chocolate as he awaited Minerva's answer "Sorry, I happen to have found out that eating chocolate is relaxing in very.,. tense situations. Do you want some?"

"No Minister, no amount of cakes could be relaxing enough for this situation. Now, regarding your question, I believe that the students opinions differ greatly according to which houses they belong to. If they are non slytherins, a part of them is against it in the conviction that it is a wrong thing to do. Another part is against it because they do not wish to see any slytherin come into their house after the eventual abolition. Regarding slytherins, from what I know and understand, all of them are against. Not only they feel it an unjust proposal, they also fear their situation would worsen dramatically had they to transfer in the other houses where their bullies are. So, to summarize the situation Minister, I think it is correct to state that overall, the entirety of the students are, although for different reasons, against the proposal."

Kingsley nodded, then smiling weakly said " This is a good news for once, maybe this can be used to our advantage. Do you believe you could organize a sort of official and… anonymous survey regarding the students opinion on the matter? If it were published revealing that the entirety of the students are against the abolition of the Slytherin House, this would be quite a setback for the TOP organization."

Minerva McGonagall smiled pleasantly, before answering in an approving tone "I could very well arrange this, It is a good idea in my opinion too. OF course, the idea will be officially mine, the last thing we need is for the public to think I am some puppet of the Ministry. I support you, Shacklebolt, but I can't do so publicly, in any way. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go" After saying this, Minerva left the room, leaving a, for once, satisfied Kingsley to think about what she had said.

"Whooooo slow dooown! If you don't slow down Draco Malfoy I will do much worse than punch you when we get back at the Manor, slow down for Merlin's beard!" Hermione was unsure if she was more mad or scared. At last she had agreed to fly once again with Draco. They had decided on a journey between the Manor and London. For a while it had been cool, she had enjoyed the view, but then the fucking ferret had wanted to "spice things up" and had began going as fastly as if he was reaching for the Snitch. Her threat seemed to work though, he slowed down and after a while they reached London. Taking her photo machine, she took pictures of the city.

"Are you done taking pics? I would like to do the return flight" Draco was slightly bored. He had liked to fly with her on his broom, but it wasn't possible to fly as fast as he would have liked with her. He had enjoyed their journey though and looked forward to others. He would have liked to present Hermione to his old school friends, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini, two purebloods who didn't believe in blood prejudice.

Theodore's father, now dead, had been a ruthless death eater, killed during the battle of Hogwarts. His death had left the Nott Estate, a large building around the same size as Malfoy Manor, to Theodore, who now lived there with his still alive, albeit still traumatized by his now dead husband abuse, mother, Elianna.

Perhaps, Draco thought, he could organize a journey with Hermione to the Nott Estate by broom, where they could meet Theodore and with Blaise too if he let him knew of the thing. As Hermione, having finished taking pics, put away the machine photo, he smiled, yes he would ask Hermione about meeting his friends… in the evening, when they went to bed and she was in her most calm state.

It was late afternoon when Ron entered the magical chess club George and Harry had told him about. He had calmed down a little regarding his breakup with Hermione, but not very much and wanted to distract himself, so he had decided to go to that club. It had opened around six months ago in Northern London, it was in building magically hidden to muggles in a similar way as Grimmauld place was. The club was quite large. It was managed by two twin sisters, who lived in the apartment, in a wing of course forbidden to the players, and like the other players engaged in many matches.

As he entered Ron was amazed at how many rooms full of people playing chess there were. There had to be over 100 people in the building! Every playing room had a "level", from 1 to 10. To play in level 2 rooms, you had to win at least five matches in a level 1 room. Your wins got automatically registered by magic at the end of any match you did. Eager to begin, Ron went to a level 1 room and sat on a empty playing spot. Every spot had a small table with the chess board and two chairs.

After a while, a person sat with him to play. Ron easily won. After only two hours, he was already in level three. He himself was surprised, yeah he knew to have always been good at chess, he had never lost a match after all, but not so much. Entering a level 3 room, he started looking around, a girl stood on the wall near a window of the room, watching him with interest. She was extremely pretty, thin, with short black hair and, he noted, icely blue eyes. Gulping at her interested but oddly cold gaze, he decided to try approaching her. Maybe she could be his first friend here? Who knows he thought daydreaming, maybe she even found him attractive.

With a friendly smile, so he told her "Hello! I am Ron Trueman, nice to meet you. Would you like a match?" He had decided to use a false surname because of what his family and Harry had told him about TOP, the growing group of people who hated purebloods. He was quite famous and if he had said his true surname, had a TOP supporter recognized him, things would have gotten bad and he really didn't want that, he had come here to have fun and relax. Hell, he had even glamoured himself, hiding his freckles and making his hair appear black to avoid being recognized.

Irene observed with interest the black haired young boy who had just spoken to her. She went to the club every three days since a month and was at level 7 now. Still, she had heard of a boy who had just entered and had already reached level 3 in less than two hours. So being curious, she had looked for who he was and discovered about the guy shop had just spoken to her.

He was the guy. He was quite attractive to her, but right now she had no place in her heart for that. She only came at the club for her little brother. He, like her, had always loved wizarding chess. If he ever healed, she wanted to be able to tell him that she was still playing and that she would love to play with him again. One of the last things he had said to her when they were still at Hogwarts before being tortured to insanity, had been about how much he loved playing with her, how he hoped she would always like chess so that they could always play. "You know Ire, with all these scary people around, the evil headmaster and his bad lackeys, the Carrows, our matches really help me face the day. They are something I always look forward to. Besides, I even win sometimes lately don't I?"

Fighting back tears, Irene pulled aside the memory and answered Ron "It is… nice to meet you too, I am Irene Chase. Are you the guy who just arrived and has already got to level three?" Smiling pleasantly, he answered her "Sure, the one and only, shall we find a spot and play?"

Sitting in a near spot, the two began playing. It was a though match, but after a full hour, Ron had won. Irene was stunned. Very few had ever managed to beat her, and those who did were in the club from before her. This Ron was truly interesting. She looked forward to play with him again. She wanted to play with him again, so she asked him "You are really good, since when do you play? I would like very much to play again with you. I hope you come again in three days from now, so we can play another time.

Ron was surprised, she had almost beat him. Nobody had ever come so close to defeat him at chess. Yes, he too would have loved to play with her again. Plus, she was very attractive, so he answered "Sure, I will be here in three days. I look forward to play with you again too. By the way, you are very good. I have loved wizarding chess since when I was a child. And you?"

They saw each other every three days since then, becoming gradually more and more interested in each other. They played often, sometimes Ron won, others it was Irene to win. They talked about what both of them liked, or in Irene case, had liked, after her trauma chess was her only remaining hobby, although she didn't tell him that.

Actually, she never told him anything about her past, or her family, and neither did he. In fact, she did tell him quite little of herself, her coldness and pain still too strong to let her open up more than the bare minimum for a basic friendship. Despite this though, in the following month, she became increasingly attracted to him, and this slowly was weakening her emotional armour.

Ron was developing the same towards her, he was very intrigued by this beautiful, smart and yet oddly cold and very reserved girl. After two weeks, he decided he would try to make something more deep than friendship happen between them. He would manage to reach through her reserve. Little did he know, what a storm he would have to face before reaching the hidden shores of her broken heart. He wanted to, and so he did, keeping playing chess with her, until the storm happened.


	16. Chapter 16: Chess o'clock

Chapter Sixteenth: Chess o'clock

Draco entered his father office, finding his mother sitting there with Lucius, looking at him expectantly as he closed the door and Lucius cast a Muffliato. It was about one week after he had gone on his flight with Hermione and tomorrow morning he would have to go with her o visit his friends, Blaise and Theodore, at Nott Manor. Hermione had gone to see Weasley and Potter, and his parents had decided to have a"talk" with him while she was away. For what reason, he would know soon.

"Very well Draco dear. I and your father have seen how your relationship with our guest has progressed in the last weeks, and it really seems there is no reason not to act on your promise to act with my, now our, plan, regarding the dear girl. Your father agrees with me" After sighing, she continued "So, we want you to honor your promise and propose, successfully, to our guest. It is imperative that she becomes Hermione Malfoy within six months, and that you announce your engagement publicly within two months. This would mean, in our opinion, that you shall have to propose to her within one month from now."

At the shocked and somehow outraged look on Draco's face at such a drastic request and intrusion in his relationship with Hermione, Narcissa's tone softened an she told him with an understanding voice "We know this is probably too sudden for you and that you are… unsettled by the extent to which we are setting deadlines and being intrusive in your relationship with her, however, you must understand our situation." Looking at Lucius, Narcissa sighed again and said to her husband "Lucius, may you remind him of how the situation has worsened lately for us?"

"Of course Cissy. As you know, Draco, since the end of the war, and especially since the rising of the TOP organization, things for pureblood families, like ours, have been… difficult to put it mildly. We now avoid being seen in public. When we go out, we mask our appearance and we do everything to avoid being recognized. That is because, as you know, attacks towards purebloods who did not do so have become a quite… constant occurrence." Lucius paused, took a refined and expensive pipe and began smoking it before continuing "You and your mother have avoided the public eye even more than other purebloods, since of our role in the war. The public knows us, and, mostly, despise us, not believing we deserve freedom, and that we are just war criminals, plotting who knows what other devious scheme"

Glaring at his father, extremely irritated by this demand the two of them had made regarding his private life, Draco replied "I know this very well, but I still do not see how it is related to what you , with no right,requested me to do"

Looking at him calmly, Lucius answered his son "You see Draco, the situation is worsening more and more every week. If things continue to deteriorate we may be even forced to leave the country. We MUST do what we can to turn the tide, to change the public opinion about pureblood families, and particularly, about OUR family. Now I believe you understand why it is indeed imperative that an engagement between yourself and our… illustrious guest, Hermione, is publicly announced as soon as possible."

Stunned, Draco looked at both his parents with irritation again, irritation, annoyance, but not outrage, not anymore. As much as he hated to admit it, they were right. The situation was becoming too dangerous. Rumors that their family was unworthy of any trust and that was probably plotting to overthrow the ministry, if not worse, were circulating more and more among the public TOP leaning minority and even among some politically independents ones. This was clear both by the last surveys of the Daily Prophet and by some opinion pieces of other gazettes. Something had to be done as soon as possible.

So, swallowing hard, he answered his parents saying, with a resigned but firm tone "I understand, although I am definitely not happy with this, I agree with you. I… will do what I can, I will convince Hermione to marry me, and I will succeed within one month."

"I am sure you will succeed Draco, Hermione is already deeply enamored with you and after all she already lives with you since months. She will agree to an engagement. I am not happy about this. However, I pushed for you to pursue her since before the situation worsened, because i truly believe you will be good together and that she will be an excellent addition to our family. So, in the end, it will just be that things will happen a little earlier, nothing more. Now, could you call Winky into the pool, I would like to discuss with her some further decorations to the structure" After saying this, Narcissa smiled pleased as Draco left the office to look for Winky. Turning towards her husband, she kissed him deeply and told him "Well now, do you think our new daughter in law will like a very large marriage? We will have to invite as more people as possible not only to maximize the public effect of course, but because it will be a grand new beginning for our family. A rebirth for the Malfoys, don't you agree dear?"

"Of course I do, but do not stress our son too much with this. It is already… enough pressure what we just requested him to do" Having said that, Lucius kissed back his wife, enjoying doing so very much often lately, after having passed over a year away from her, and before that, over two years in very stressing situations with Voldemort in their house.

Hermione was in Grimmauld place, where she had gone to visit Harry and meet Ron again. She had seen Harry and her other friends sometimes lately, but for Ron, only once she had seen him again after that time when she had told him of her relationship with Draco. They had agreed to remain friends of course. Telling her "I am still quite horrified at imagining you with that damn fe… with Malfoy, but I respect your decision and I know you were right, we still love each other and will always do, only, we will do it as friends." he had agreed to continue their friendship. Still since then it had been weeks and she had yet not seen him again

This time it would be the first time she would see him again.

She was in the living room with Harry. Tonks had gone with Teddy and Ginny to the burrow to talk to Arthur about a plan to install a Tv and a dvd reader in Grimmauld place. Hermione was particularly interested in knowing if they would succeed. If they did, she wanted to do the same at the Manor. After a while that she had been waiting with Harry, talking with him about his coming marriage with Ginny who would be in a month, Ron arrived.

Ron Weasley felt warmth at seeing one of his best friends again. he had finally moved on with her, in fact he was trying to pursue the reserved and strange chess player Irene, so he really had got over the end of his relationship with Hermione. He wanted to tell Harry and Hermione about her, to know what they thought of her cold attitude. Greeting his friends, he sat with them in the living room, all of them was silent for a while, until Harry said "It's been a lot since we were together like this, just the three of us, right?"

"Yes, since after the battle, when all of our troubles seemed to be finally over, as it was normal given our luck, they haven't, but we are still together. Do you remember when McGonagall asked us why when there are troubles somehow we are always there" After Harry said this, all of them laughed heartily and began talking about their lives, as they hadn't done anymore in a long time. Hermione told them of her plan to finish the last school year she had never finished, asking McGonagall if she could sit her exams without attending classes "I still have not told this to anyone, I will write to McGonagall this evening."

Harry told them of his auror career. He also said how most missing death eaters had now been captured. "You know Hermione, we have to thank you too for this. Without the mighty Huntress of Justice, who knows how much more time it would have taken to capture six missing death eaters"

Ron talked about what he thought to do. he had began working with George in the jokes store, but was thinking of leaving and starting an activity of his own.

After they had been talking for a while Ron said "You know, I have been going often to a chess club lately. I met someone there. She is an excellent player, she even beat me sometimes! I also like her a lot. We play and talk, but never about our private lives. Well, she does not even know about my true identity. I use a false name to avoid being acknowledged by eventual TOP members…."

"Wait wait wait… you have met a girl? Someone who actually interests you on an intellectual level too? So soon after Hermione? Tell me Ron, are you sure you have not stolen some Felix Felicis from Slughorn when you went to Hogwarts a week ago to see him asking about a "help" for the jokes shop?" Harry was stunned, and happy for his friend, it was good to see how he was recovering so fastly after having awakened from the coma.

Interrupting Harry excitedly, Hermione said "Also, you have to make us meet her somehow, I want to see her! I am happy you are really moving on after all. So, how is she?"

Smirking at his friends excitement, Ron continued "As I was saying, she does not say much about herself. She is very… reserved, even cold somehow. She is hot, very pretty. Black hairs, blue eyes… you will see her when you will meet her. One day you will but NOT now ok. I… want to try to get together with her first. She is… weird though, she is very reserved as I said but not in a shy kind of way, more like she is afraid to open up to others."

"Honestly Ron, try to get her out of that club, to go out with her in a real date if you want to accomplish something. Do it with tact, since she seems so closed, but do it or nothing will happen." After saying this Hermione went to take a butterbeer in the kitchen, thinking happily about Ron situation.

The following day, at 11:00 am Draco and Hermione were in front of Nott Manor, awaiting for his current owner, Draco's friend Theodore, to open the gate and welcome them inside.

After a few moments, a young man appeared at the door. It was Theodore Nott. Average height, black hair, elegant but sober robes, gently greeted them "It is great to see you again Draco, it's been quite a while, months in fact, in which I saw many letters of you, but not one visit." Turning to Hermione, who was looking at him with a curious gaze, he smiled warmly, and said "Welcome into my home Granger, may I call you Hermione? We have a very close friend in common now, so let's call each other by name, shall we? Oh but I am being insufferably annoying, talking and talking without inviting you inside. Let's go in the Manor, I will tell Flyer, my house elf, to get you something"

After a few minutes, they were inside, drinking a beer in the living room, when Hermione asked "So… Theodore, It is very nice to know you. When we were at school, you never smeared me or others, it you were never calling others mudblood. I like that about you. You live with your mum right?"

Sighing, as what Hermione said had reminded him of his dipshit father, a death eater through and through, Theo answered "Yes Hermione, I live with her, my mother is still… recovering. My father was a scum. He was always horrible to me, but also to my mother. He had loved her once, or so she says, but after a few years since he became a death eater, he changed, and became the monster I have always known until his death in the battle of Hogwarts. You said I was not a racist. I suppose you should thank my father for this. He was a pureblood supremacist through and through, he would have gladly tortured and killed you just for having "tainted" the manor with your presence. By horribly mistreating me though, he made me hate him and reject him and everything he believed in, including his racist beliefs."

Uncomfortable about having reminded Theo of such awful events, Hermione replied "I am sorry I made you rethink about those things. Thanks for telling me about it though. What do you do? Do you work?"

Smiling, relieved of the change of argument, Theo answered "I am a curse breaker, I am particularly expert in ancient curses. It always fascinated me. How you can undo dark magic, to bring balance again in reality. I work as a private though, not for the ministry.

Having been silent until then, Draco looked at his clock. It was almost 12:00 am, lunch would be at 12:15, how was it that Blaise had still not arrived? "Theo, why isn't our professional in being late friend not here yet? Did he tell you something?"

Turning towards his best friend, Theo said "He should be here soon don't worry, as you pointed out he is always late. He will arrive for when we have lunch, after all he loves eating more than the two of us combined"

As Theo had predicted, twenty minutes later, Blaise Zabini arrived, coming, unlike Draco and Hermione, by floo and appearing so directly in the living room.

After getting out of the floo, looking at the three of them one by one, he exclaimed "Draco, Blaise! Ah it has been ages since we last met all together. I missed so much our flights and our lunches together!" Focusing on Hermione and taking her hand in a theatrical way, he said "It is really a pleasure to meet you, gorgeous valkyrian witch, under such… informal circumstances. I apologize of course for my behaviour during our school years, that while it wasn't nearly as extraordinarly arseholish as the one of our Draco, it was certainly unacceptable."

"Ok theater boy, leave her hand, don't you want to have lunch?" After Draco told him so, Blaise immediately pulled away from Hermione exclaiming "You are absolutely right my methodical friend, it is food time right now, a most important part of m… of the day. Shall we go to eat?"

After that, they went to eat, Theo's mother was not with them, having gone to visit her friend, Astoria's Greengrass mother. They had a good time, chatting and eating pleasantly Hermione liked Draco's friends. Theo was a bookworm like her, he was nice and polite, and with the weight of a traumatic past who at times showed as a shadow in his eyes whenever his father was mentioned. She also liked Blaise, he was quite fun in his own way, theatrical and pleasant as ever. He loved quidditch and was thinking of opening a chain of stores on quidditch products. Hermione felt quite sorry for him, when he said that, actually, he would have preferred trying to be a player in a team, but had renounced it for the rising anti pureblood climate.

After they had eaten, Blaise left and shortly afterwards, Draco and Hermione left too, both satisfied at how the other had liked the visit.

Irene was nervous, extremely so. Sure, she had never dated anyone since before the war, when she was sixteen, and when she had done it, it had led to pretty short relationship who had lasted no more than three weeks and who had never gone beyond kissing and cuddling on a physical level. It was not that the reason for most of her nervousness though.

No, the main reason for her nervous state was her fear that by agreeing to this date, she had somehow betrayed her brother, focusing a little away from revenge. Which right had she to try being happy with someone, when her brother couldn't even stay an hour awake without screaming in terror a few times? As her mind was clouded by these thoughts, her chess loving friend, her date, Ronald Trueman, arrived into the cafè and walked towards her, sitting at her table.

"Hello! You are amazing you know, the dress look perfect on you! Are you ok? You seem… distant. If you want we can delay the date to another day." Ron looked at Irene with concerned eyes. What was his date thinking? Her wary eyes and empty gaze when he had seen her had worried him.

Trying to get herself together, Irene answered him "No i… it's nothing. It is just a long time since I last dated. You look good too by the way. I saw a fine cake on sale here, I shall order it, do you want it too? It is a cake with sour cream and strawberry."

Not quite convinced by her reassurance, but respecting her decision of not telling him about it for the moment, he agreed to take the same cake she wanted. They ordered it together with a cold lemon tea.

As they ate and chatted, Ron kept thinking about her formerly empty gaze. It was the same he had seen on her for a moment, before she answered him on his date proposal the former day. Something about the date made her feel uneasy, but what? It couldn't just be the nervousness for the date. Somehow he felt there was something else going on, more serious, but he wouldn't push her to tell him so soon.

After they had eaten, Ron asked her "I have a surprise to show you. Would you like to go to with me to the park near here?

Nervous, but curious, Irene agreed, she was enjoying the date, and wanted to see if the best part of it was still to come.

Once they were in the park, making sure none was near, Ron opened his little purse and extracted from it a large carpet, who started levitating on the ground.

"A flying carpet! I never saw one! How did you manage to get it!" Irene was excited, she had been fascinated by quidditch a little for the flying brooms, but she has always had the curiosity of trying to fly on a much more "large" device like a flying carpet. They were quite rare in britain though, where did Ronald get one?

Smiling triumphantly, Ron answered, thanking the fates for his friendship with Neville Longbottom "I borrowed it from a friend of mine who has gone to Egypt last summer and bought one. This is not the full surprise though, to find out the whole surprise, you have to get on the carpet with me and close your eyes while we go to the place. Trust me, you will adore it."

Excited curiosity and wariness about going alone in an unknown place with him fought within Irene, but in the end, curiosity won. He wouldn't harm her, she felt it, he was not a bad person, he wasn't, couldn't be a pureblood or a slytherin, he couldn't be like the monsters who had harmed her brother, killed her parents and who had harmed and almost killed her too.

So, after Irene had agreed, they got on the carpet and after she had closed her eyes, Ron put a temporary invisibility spell to the carpet who then flyed on and on. In a few minutes, the carpet stopped and after putting his surprise on the carpet from the Ron said "You can open your eyes Irene, this is my surprise"

Opening her eyes, she looked in front of her, stunned. The huge clock of the Big Ben stood in front of her, surrounded by the stars filled sky. "It is amazing, really, it is…" Interrupting her raising a hand, Ron said "Look on the carpet, in front of your feet." Doing as he had said, she stared, amazed at the beautiful chess set on the carpet.

After a while, Ron broke her shock, saying gently "So, do you want to play Irene?"

Not finding anything to reply, she simply smiled happily, like she hadn't had in a long, long time, and with a cheering expression who said "Absolutely!"

They played with both calm and excitement, she was particularly amazed by all the setting, the atmosphere, the carpet, the chess set, it had really been a good surprise. It was making her feel happy, serene, in those moments, her hate and pain were like suspended, put away temporarily by a simple happiness she didn't believe before to be still able to feel. After the match, who lasted quite a while and saw her lose slightly, she looked at Ronald. She looked at that attractive, nice, amazing and surprising man who had just gave her something precious she missed from before the war. Contentment, happiness. So, after he said "Well, I won, but i think the surprise was still worth.." before he had finished talking, she rushed to him and kissed him deeply, for a long while, putting in the kiss all her joy and gratefulness for the simple positive feelings he had made her feel.

Pulling slowly away from him, she said "It was more than worth it, it was amazing"

"I-I am glad it was" Ron, pleasantly shocked, kissed her back.

After that, they stayed there for a while, cuddled to each other, simply enjoying the view of a chess set before the stars, on a flying carpet, before leaving and returning satisfied and contented, both of them, to home.


	17. Chapter 17:Cracking Shells

Chapter Seventeenth: Cracking Shells

Hagrid was in the forbidden forest, Fang with him at his side. This time, the hate towards slytherins had reach a new, dangerous height, crossing a red line. A slytherin student, a sixteen year old girl named Alana Rowle had been kidnapped and taken to the forest by two TOP supporting students, who wanted revenge for their family members killed by the Alana's parents during the battle of Hogwarts. Reaching a cave and hearing some moaning, hoping to have found the student, Hagrid went near the entrance, thinking at how this crazy hate was sending out of the window all of the peace they had hoped to reach after defeating Voldemort.

The Headmistress survey at least had given some good news. The vast majority of the students, about 90%, was against the TOP crazy proposal to abolish the Slytherin house at Hogwarts. However, this good news did not stop the escalation of the hate against slytherins at the school, leading to the kidnapping.

Finding the girl tied inside the cave and freeing her, Hagrid reassured her, saying "Don't worry, the ones who kidnapped you have been caught and are now on the Hogwarts express to take them back home. They'll probably get at least a long suspension for doing crazy shit like this. Are you ok?"

"I am fine professor, those two didn't do much beside insulting and leaving me here. I kind of get them you know? I hated mud… muggleborns before, as my parents taught me to, and they hadn't done anything to me. I can only imagine how more easier it is to hate someone who actually is related to the harm who has come to your family" After saying this, Alana stood up and went with Hagrid back to the castle, hoping to be able to sleep that night, perhaps her friends would stay up with her a little and cheer her up, getting her thoughts away from the fear she had felt when those two had kidnapped her and left her in the forest.

Once safe in the slytherin common room, Alana was surrounded by her fellow housemates, except the ones younger than fourteen years old, who were kept out of the room. All were eager to know what had happened to her in the forest, and to discuss about what they should do. After a while. they seems to reach a consensus for which it was really unsafe now for a slytherin to walk alone or with only another person to accompany him/her through the school.

At that point though, a guy, a fifth year named Aster Loving, in a tone both determined and defeated, said "What will it matter? One person, three , four, we will always find ourselves in situations when it will be possible for those who hates us to do to us something like they tried to do to Alana or worse"

At this, Alana answered him "Then what do you suggest Aster? We can't do much, but at least what we can to keep us safe let's do it!"

At that point, Aster stood up, making sure everyone was watching him before saying in a fatal tone "You already know the solution, we all know it, we just haven't had yet the balls to say it out loud. Well, enough is enough. You could have died Alana, died! After this, who knows what else could happen to us, and what about the first years among us? Who will keep them safe from some TOP sixth year hater? There is only a solution to this."

Sighing heavily, he continued, saying the fatal words "We have to leave Hogwarts"

All the students in the common room were shocked, literally so, but as they thought about it, many of them liked Aster's proposal. As he then said, it would be fairly easy to convince their parents to do this, especially given the last incident with Alana. Yes, convincing their parents to pull them away from Hogwarts and to send them to another magical school outside of Britain or to let them be homeschooled would not be too much hard. So, that evening, many, convinced of this, began writing letters to their parents, informing them of their strong wish of leaving Hogwarts.

She was dreaming, it had been a long time since she did it, because she did take modified dreamless sleep to avoid it, because she knew what kind of dreams, of nightmares, awaited her if she dreamed. However, it seemed this time her potion had not worked, or maybe she had forgotten to take it after the date with Ronald, who had made her feel something she had not felt in years, contentment and hope.

Where was she? It was all dark, she was in a bed. She reached a torch and took a book to read, like sometimes she did when she was at home. Yeah that was where she was, she was at home, during the Christmas holidays, THOSE christmas holidays. When she had just opened the book, a book about the history of wizarding chess, she heard a terrifying scream coming from out of her room, it was of her father!

"Are you trying to escape you mudblood lover? It is useless, I and my wolfish friend are going to make you tell us where you and that mudblood wife of yours have hidden the idiot who is helping the mudbloods at the Ministry leave the country without being examined by the Umbridge office. We know you know something, so tell us now and you won't suffer too much before we kill you." Edward Dolohov, while he was saying these things, had magically bound both the man and his wife, they were in a corridor, at the end of the corridor there was a closed door, the door of Irene's room, who was now watching horrified the scene through the keyhole.

"Kill us now if you want to then, we do not know anything and if we did do you really believe we would tell you?. I and my husband do not fear you. We pity you. You are just slaves, both of your hate and of the madman who think of you as tools" Irene's mother, Adelaide, was fierce in her determined gaze directed at Dolohov. She had to resist, for the lives who would be at risk if she and her husband, Dylan, gave in, and for their daughter, she and Dylan had to diverge the intruders attention from elsewhere in the house, they had to be only focused on them.

Turning towards her, who was bound on the floor too, Edward approached her and looked at her in the eyes, saying in a threatening tone "We serve the greatest wizard of all time, a filthy mudblood slut like you would never understand. Also, you may be feisty now, but there are things far more unpleasant than the threat of a quick death that I and my wolfie friend here can do to make you and that mudblood lover of your husband talk. Now, if you do not wish to find out what they are, TALK!"

In saying the last word, he slapped hardly Adelaide which still kept her defiant gaze.

At a look of Edward, the lycanthrope nodded and went to Dylan, saying "Oh i hope so much you are not going to just talk, i am going to have so much fun breaking and biting if you resist" Then, immediately after saying the last word, claws suddenly developed from his fingers, and he violently ripped off Dylan shirt, scarring him on the chest in the process

Whispering in her ear, Edward then said to Adelaide "You know what is going to happen now if you do not start talking mudblood? My friend will begin biting your man there, first ripping one finger off, then another, then a whole hand, then he may pass to the feet… until he will taste the blood of his neck, breaking it. What do you say lovely mudblood, are you going to start talking?"

As Adelaide split in Edward's mouth as answer, he told the lycantrophe to begin, and he began. Screams came out of Irene's father as his body was slowly ripped of by the werewolf, one hand, one foot, until Edward told the werewolf to stop and decided to change tactic. Going towards Dylan sobbing form, h said to him with a condescending tone "Very well, what a surprise isn't it? It seems your mudblood wife does not give a fuck about you after all. You just screamed relentlessly and she has not done a single simple thing as talking, a thing that would have made your suffering stop. I know it feels bad but don't be surprised, a mudblood can't be loyal after all, is not in their sick nature. Now, don't you think she deserves punishment for her lack of loyalty towards you?

You see my poor bleeding friend, she may be a mudblood, but her body is worth much more than her blood after all, such a pretty figure is meant to be used. I believe i will ask the help of my wolfie friend though in this, I like to share after all. However, if you think that, after all, she does deserve another chance, you may, at ANY moment, tell us to stop. I am quite generous you know, if you tell us what we wish to know, we will stop, and let you here to die in a... private setting."

Sheer terror and fear for his wife came on Dylan expression, but still he did not dare to speak, and with horror he and Irene through her bedroom's keyhole saw the intruders as they began ripping of Adelaide's clothes, touching her and insulting as if they were in a sadistic trance that made every scream of her, every sob, even more aroused in their debasement and degradation, both verbal and physical, of herself.

 **Beginning of explicit scene**

After a rather brutal and relatively long foreplay, the two intruders positioned themselves one behind and one in front of Adelaide, and each of them started abusing her, one the face, the other the backside with their members. Screams of pain from a voice and of sadistic pleasure from other two filled the corridor, until they released in her.

 **End of explicit scene**

Afterwards, Edward said "A pity your pretty little daughter is not here, i heard she has gone back to Hogwarts today, really a pity, we may have had some delicious fun with her two. However fear not you two, she will have what she deserves soon enough. After all, the daughter of a mudblood and of a blood traitor has no place in the new order except that, perhaps, of a slave. However, since you too seem rather uncaring about each other fate, and since we already had our fun, there is no point in letting you continue your worthless lives right?"

Giving a non verbal signal to the lycantrope, the werewolf went on breaking the necks of both Dylan and Adelaide. Afterwards, the intruders left the house, and a few minutes later, a traumatized sixteen years old girl, got out of her bedroom, went beside her parents bodies, and as she went to touch her mother face, she started to scream as strong as she could, as if the strength of the scream could remove her pain and cancel what had just happened. However, instead of what the girl hoped, the screams continued with Irene waking up from the nightmare and because of them.

Still horrified, Irene cursed herself loudly in her bed for having forgotten, for the first time in two years, to take her dose dreamless sleep.

She thought about the nightmare, it had been a memory of what had happened when her parents had been killed. She was supposed to leave for Hogwarts that day, at the end of the Christmas Holidays, but then she had decided to stay another day.

The day after the horror had happened, she had gone back to Hogwarts, not daring telling anyone, not her little brother, none, about what happened. She had hoped that maybe if she didn't say it, it would have been as if had not happened, that maybe she would have received the usual weekly letter from her parents asking her about how she and her brother were going.

Her brother, thanks goodness he had not been at home to witness such horror, he had gone back to Hogwarts the day before it. If he had witnessed that… Irene didn't want to think at how even worse off his mental state could have been now, instead, she got up from the bed and went to the bathroom, to wash her face. She then looked at the clock, it was 4:10 am. She knew that going back to sleep was risky at the moment, so she merely sat on the bed, thinking about how could she have forgotten to take her dose of dreamless sleep.

In a few minutes, it occurred to her. The former day had been the day of her date with Ronald, which she had throughly enjoyed, her excitement after the date had been what made her forget to take her potion!

What should she she do? Could she continue seeing him, continue develop something that had made her smile and feel warm she had not felt anymore since before what she had just dreamt of had happened?

No, she didn't want to, she wanted to continue seeing him, to continue to feel that warm, despite the cracks in the shell of her cold reserve those feelings were causing. She hoped that such cracks would not destroy her resolve, that they would not break her mask, because she knew that if her mask cracked, only pain and tears, tears she had refused to cry, having buried them under a mask of coldness and vengeful hate, would fall upon her, and when that would have happened, she would have broken.

Two days later, Ron Weasley was taking a butterbeer in the Leaky Cauldron, together with none else than Draco Lucius Malfoy. If someone had told him, the day when he awoke from the coma, that he would have been having a casual and somewhat friendly drink with the infamous ferret, he would have told them to go check their mental health at Saint Mungo's. However, here he was, having decided to come at the meeting that the ferret had requested with a owl the former day.

 _ **To Ronald Weasley**_

 _ **It is my understanding that you have been getting quite better lately, from what Potter and Hermione herself have told me. I would like for us to meet at the Leaky Cauldron tomorrow around 6:10 PM to… clean our past and talk about something that concern us both.**_

 _ **Come alone.**_

 _ **Draco Malfoy**_

Yeah, that letter had been pretty much one of the last things he had ever imagined Draco ferret Malfoy would send him. Putting aside his thoughts on the matter, Ron looked at Draco and spoke "So, what do you want to talk about Malfoy?"

"First of all, I… apologize for my behaviour with you in the past years. I was a brat, however, the war changed many things, and I have no more a reason to insult you or think too much badly of you anymore. I mean, obviously I think still I am better than you, but I cannot honestly consider you anymore a blood traitor, I am one myself now after all, nor I feel anymore that I am right in anyway to… pettily insult your family for the poor size of its Gringott vaults. I apologize for how I treated you and your family in the past and I hope we can, from now on, be at least… civil, to each other, for Hermione's sake at least." Draco looked with interest his ex-enemy, the one who had been object, like Hermione, of countless insults from him, and hoped that he would be reasonable.

"Look ferr… I mean, Malfoy, I am not going to insult you or anything. You were a brat, a shit, if Hermione thinks you have really changed, I have at least to try keeping an open mind and be civil… until you are civil too of course. I am not fond of you, and I still have high doubts we will ever be friends in anyway, but I guess we can at least be polite and civil with each other, for Hermione at least, as you said. However, if you have not really changed and this is some kind of ploy of yours, I swear to you that you will deeply regret of not having died in the fyendfire Harry, Hermione and I saved you from. Now, let's go to the point, why this meeting?" After saying this, Ron took his butterbeer and drank another sip, waiting for Draco to answer with a wary but curious expression on his face.

Looking at him directly in the eyes, Draco answered "I know who your Irene, the girl Hermione told me you are currently attracted to, probably is, and why she is reserved. I will tell you and I would like for you, as a thanks for the info I am giving you, to help me find a person who should be going regularly to the wizarding chess club you are also going to. It is a person a friend of mine believes to have disappeared during the war, i would like for you to find her, and to confirm her identity. What do you say, you do not have to answer right away, if you do not feel like answering now we can…"

"I will do it, but I do not know if I really want to know what you do seem to know about Irene. I… I would like for her to tell me these things. So i would like that you keep your info until I change my mind and feel that I really need to know." getting up, from the chair, Ron said goodbye to Draco and, without another word, left the Leuky cauldron, unaware of how much the shell of reserve of Irene had began cracking, and of how close she was in fact to break, and to tell her story, her horror, to him.


	18. Chapter 18: Blooming of Love and Despair

Chapter Eighteenth: The Blooming of Love and Despair

"Esteemed members of the Wizengamot, much has been said about this proposal. It has been told us, the people shattered by the war caused by the Riddle criminal and his racist ideology, that justice needs reconciliation. That there cannot be peace and revenge at the same time. I, Arnold Armstead, for myself and for the countless people whose families have suffered the most at the hands of those criminal followers of Riddle, cannot help but disagree vehemently. Sometimes, wounds are too deep, too painful for them to be able to heal. Sometimes, we must separate from anything that can reopen them and rekindle the fire of war. The slytherin students request of exodus from the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry of Hogwarts is a living proof of the truth of this. The child of the lion who slaughtered the lamb's parents cannot be allowed to be together with the lamb. The children of the pureblood families, whose main nest at Hogwarts was the House of Slytherin, must either leave the school as some of them have petitioned this assembly, or be resorted into another of the other three houses. To accomplish this, it is imperative that the proposal a collegue of yours, esteemed members of this assembly, has put forward regarding the abolition of the Slytherin House at Hogwarts, MUST be accepted by this assembly! For true peace and true justice to endure, the remnants of the darkness must be banished, and suppressed."

After Armstead finished his speech, an uncomfortable silence captured the hall of the assembly, one which Kingsley Shacklebolt didn't like, not one bit. It was obvious that, since the TOP members were very few in the current Wizengamot, the proposal wouldn't pass, but still, the fact that instead of loud outrage it had evoked silence was a clear sign that the wind was going towards the TOP proposal within the public.

There was silence now because everyone already knew that the public, although for different reasons, backed the proposal by almost 7 to 10, it had been confirmed by three surveys made by three different newspapers.

The current wizengamot would reject the proposal sure, but Kingsley knew that it couldn't do it "loudly", or with the outrage such a proposal would demand.

Sighing deeply, at the sign of Chief Warlock, he took the word and spoke against the madness proposed by TOP trying to be as diplomatic as possible:

"Honorable members of the assembly, what Mr Armstead said about the proposal of his party can sound appealing, even reasonable, especially to the countless people who lost loved ones in the horrible war caused by Riddle and by the blood prejudice of his followers. However, if we are to truly end what started the war, we must not give in to fear, to hate and bitterness. Yes Mr Armstead, justice does, indeed, need reconciliation. Of course, reconciliation does not mean lack of punishment, but punishment must be suffered by those who deserved it, not by children, not by people whose only fault is to be born into a certain family, or being sorted into a certain house at school" - Taking a breath and drinking a glass of water, Kingsley continued - "If we were to act this way, lashing out at people, children, who committed no crime, discriminating against them just for being who they are, we wouldn't be really much different than those racists which filled Riddle's army. This is why I, as Minister and as leading member of my party, am going to vote against this proposal."

Silence followed Kingsley's speech too, although this time it was made up of various heads nodding to it. Afterwards, when the votes were counted, there were 79 "Nay" and 21 "Yes". The "Yes" expected had been less than 10, apparently, Kingsley thought worried, many had been swayed by the changing public opinion and feared the electoral backlash that seemed to be coming for those who still favoured reason and reconciliation. Sighing, after the session was over, he returned to his office, there was still work to do before he could retire for the evening.

Irene woke up screaming. It was the fourth time in a week since it happened the first time. The first three times she had "only" dreamt of THAT night, but this time she dreamt of another of the horrors of her past. Yes, her second encounter with the lycantrope, which she had barely survived.

Was that monster still alive? Shivering in fear, she thought about the eventuality of him coming to keep the threatening promise he had made her of making her taste the same fate of her mother.

"He is dead, he is dead, he is dead, he is NOT coming back, I must calm down, calm down Ire, you saw him fall from that window, there's no way he can still be alive, calm down."

Checking the clock, she shaked her head, trying to focus. She had to leave for a date with Ronald this morning, she would have fun and not think about that fucker. NO, she said multiple times in her mind, she wouldn't.

An hour later, at 12 am, Irene met Ronald at a muggle restaurant near her apartment. She was liking him more and more every day. he made her laugh as she never had since many years, he made her feel a warmth she didn't know to be still able to feel, feelings she had forgotten to be able to feel. Was she falling for him? It was possible, and it was likely that this had contributed a lot to her resolve weakening and her nightmares returning.

However, even if part of her wanted to stop seeing him and go back to reinforcing her emotional armour, she couldn't bring herself to do it, she couldn't bring herself to turn away from the warmth she was experiencing after years.

"What's up Ire? You seem more and more worried this week at our dates. If you want to talk I am here you know that right? I will do anything I can to help, and even if I can't actually help, I have heard that just telling your troubles can make you feel better. Ah yes I want a beer, medium, and a pizza with ham, a lot of ham please"

Irene watched Ronald Weasley as he ordered his dishes after having for the fourth time worried about her wellbeing. This was also an old-new for her, a very pleasant one. It had been so much since someone had been there for her, caring about her. As she finished ordering her own menu, she realized it.

She couldn't go back to be without him, she didn't want to, she would rather have nightmares every night. She had fallen for him, she loved him.

This realization though, made her despair. She felt a rather strong urge to tell him everything, to let go of her caution, of her mask and trust someone once again, but what if he left her then? Would she be able to avoid breaking completely after having experienced happiness once again?

As the date came to an end, Irene arrived to a decision, yes, she couldn't do otherwise, it was her only option.

"This is madness!" Hermione was furious, the Daily Prophet report of the vote in the Wizengamot had left her shocked, and angry. This was worse than she had feared. Sure, the vote had not passed, but the "yes" votes had been a lot more than what expected. The public opinion was shifting, and this was another sign of it.

She felt arms around her from her back and lips kissing her neck, Draco's voice whispering in her ear "You knew this was possible my lovely swot, it's late, don't concern yourself with these news" Kissing her hair, he said, more slowly, "Let's go to our room, I will make you forget you ever read this for tonight, you KNOW i will keep my promise."

"I know, of course I know, but if these continue you, your fami..." As she talked, she was silenced by fingers on her lips, and by his mischievous, soothing voice telling her "Not now, not tonight. I have plans for you tonight, plans that no hater will manage to stop"

 **Beginning of explicit scene**

He slid the other hand beyond the dress part covering her breasts, beginning a slow, teasing massage. "Aren't you curious to discover my plans?"

"Oooh, of course I am, you prick" Looking at the room they were in, the living room, she had an idea, she wanted to forget, and she wanted to do it with style "Your parents are already sleeping aren't they?"

"Yes why do you…" Turning around to face him, she silenced him with her own fingers, "And Winky is occupied with the pool right?"

"Y-yes, what do y… you want to do it… here? You know it won't be pretty if we are caught" In a mocking and challenging, tone, she replied "Oh, but wouldn't the risk make it all the more fun? Are you scared of being caught you poor ferret?"

He answered by kissing her hard and resuming fondling her breasts, saying "I am a snake, not a chicken."

With a quick charm, Hermione stripped them both, making him slightly taken aback. "didn't want to wait this time, you DON'T mind, right?"

His eyes and his sudden pushing her on a chair, beginning caressing her clit, showed her immediately that he did mind, in the sense that he was glad he had speed things up.

Draco felt a little afraid, slightly more than what he made show, fearing that they may be caught, but the excitement of the risk overwhelmed his fear, the situation and the wild mood Hermione was in turned him on, as he began caressing her pussy with a fast pace, earning delightful sounds from his wild lover.

When she was near her peak, he stopped, Hermione glaring at him for the sudden stop, but immediately afterward he resumed pleasuring her, with his mouth this time, beginning his quest for what he considered the most amazing juice in the world."

Hermione felt at heaven, a wild, very naughty heaven, filled with pleasure and risky excitement, as she, a few moments later, recovered from the aftershocks of orgasmic bliss. "My turn now, I know a snake which craves attention here" After saying this, she got up, and levitated her excited ferret over the large table of the dining room, conjiured a cushion for his head, and got on the table herself, sitting beside his legs, and started touching his penis.

"OH what an eager snake we have here, a few touches of incitation and he is already like this!" After saying so, smiling devilishly, she brought her mouth on his member and started licking the head, obtaining a rather loud "Bearded Merlin!" from Draco, which was feeling like a kid discovering Christmas had come early.

Grinning, Hermione started devouring his penis, taking it almost all into her mouth and pleasuring it at a rapid pace until, shortly later, she felt her salty reward flood into her mouth.

As Draco recovered, from the sheer pleasure he had just experienced, Hermione, having cleaned her mouth with a charm, kissed him, sweetly this time, their kiss a kiss of satisfied lovers, expressing their contentment and love to each other.

 **End of explicit scene**

"I believe the dining room is NOT your private bedroom, am I wrong, Draco?"

The couple on the table startled, suddenly getting down from the table and dressing themselves with a quick charm. Both were quite embarrassed, but trying to keep some composure as Lucius Malfoy looked at them sternly.

"I-I apologize father, we didn't, we thought you and mother were sleeping and we…"

"And you didn't think people awaken from their sleep, didn't you? Or that, regardless of it, the dining _table_ of this Manor isn't a location suited for having sex, or that if Winky caught you instead of me she may have been even more… shocked, by the behaviour of her master. I am disappointed in you, Draco, I thought you, as a slytherin no less, would have had more sense than screwing your girlfriend on such a… setting".

Lucius was fought between shock and amusement. He had to act sternly of course, this wasn't acceptable behaviour for a Malfoy, but he would be lying to himself if he said that he had never done something risky involving sex at Draco's age, and he would be lying even more if he told himself of not having caught his son's girlfriend body in all its... splendor

"My son is sure lucky" He thought, as he went to leave them with a warning "I sincerely hope, Draco and you, Hermione, that what I just witnessed will be a one time exception. It would be… unsettling indeed if this were to be witnessed by the other inhabitants of the Manor, don't you agree?" After saying so, he left, leaving the couple alone.

Draco looked at Hermione, still quite embarrassed, and said "Well, it happened, he caught us… but you were right, it WAS exciting. I would do as he told us though, no more things like this, or it may REALLY become… unsettling"

"I agree, and you know, it did help, I am not that bothered by the news anymore. Now, shall we go to bed and continue this in a less "unsettling" scenario then?" Hermione told him, still wanting to continue and more properly finish their lovemaking without interruptions.

"I guess I will tag along my insatiable vixen, go ahead, I want to take some wine and then I will come" After they separated, Draco went to the kitchen, taking some wine. As he took a bottle, he thought about the news which had upset Hermione. The situation was growing more dangerous and nearing the point of becoming desperate.

He would have to ask Hermione to announce an engagement very soon, despite how much he would prefer to wait, to let her grow more accustomed at being with him. Sometimes tough, love and despair bloomed together, and he would do what was, unfortunately, necessary.


	19. Chapter 19: Broken Chess

"So you are really leaving?" Alana Rowle stood behind Aster Loving, the slytherin student who had encouraged, mostly successfully, all of their slytherin house mates to leave Hogwarts for their own safety. Alana and Aster were friends, and most of the time agreed, but this time, while Alana understood her friend's reasons, she couldn't bring herself to agree with him. Hogwarts was THEIRS as much as it belonged to the other houses. She didn't want to let those bigots win by escaping.

"Self-preservation, Alana, it is a most Slytherin trait. I will leave the next week, and once again I beg you to leave too. How are you going to survive here, with most Slytherins gone? The few of us who will stay will face even more danger. How it is that even Lewis doesn't insist on you to leave this fucking battlefield? Doesn't your Gryffindor boyfriend care about your wellbeing or he just care to snog you?"

"Enough! You are just talking out of spite. Lewis respects my decision and doesn't bother me any two days about this. It's a situation awful enough as it is without people reminding you of it constantly! I know it's a mess, I know I am going to risk a lot staying here, but I refuse to let those bigots win! This damn school is our home too! If YOU cared about me as you say, you'd stay here with me!"

Sneering, and with a hint of regret in his voice, Aster replied "YOU really should be a Gryffindor. All that reckless bravery. What victory are you going to achieve by getting yourself killed?!"

"Do you really think I am not scared as hell about this? I am! Every damn time I pass among the corridors, when I have to go to a lesson or even to eat at the hall, I am terrified that some asshole is going to hurt me as "retaliation" for my surname! I don't want to stay because I am recklessly brave, but because my ambition isn't going to be defeated by some bigot. The last time I checked, ambition was the trait our house prided itself the most with. I am going to bed right now, I hope you aren't going to ask me again to change a decision I already made".

After saying this, Alana left the Slytherin common room, rushing towards the girls' dormitory. She felt bad for her friend, he was only concerned for her, but she wouldn't change her decision. Hogwarts was her home, no matter how many bigots didn't agree.

Going to her date with Ron, a date which would have consisted of a chess match and dinner at his apartment, Irene once again thought if it would have been better to run away and never see him again, she felt the cracks on her emotional armour getting deeper, she knew it was only a matter of time before she broke and told him everything. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to stop seeing him. She loved him. Somehow, against her wishes, she had managed to fall for him, and now she wasn't able to bring herself to run away from him. She knew what she was risking, but her traitorous heart didn't seem to care.

Sighing, at last arrived at Ron's apartment door, she rang the bell, waiting for him to answer. When he opened the door, welcoming her and kissing her, she felt it. As he closed the door of the apartment, she knew there was no way she would leave his place without having told him everything.

This thought scared her, the terrified girl inside of her that had repressed her tears and built the most cold mask possible to escape pain screamed in her head for her to run, but Irene could not bring herself to do it. Instead, she let him lead her to a living room, where on a large table a big chess set with glass pieces stood in all its beauty.

"Are you ready to lose Irene? The last time you won at the club, but I'll show you it was an ex… are you ok Ire? You seem pretty put off. I can get you something. A butterbeer?"

"I-i am fine, but I will take a butterbeer thanks."

Ron was worried, Irene was always a little worried about something she never wanted to tell him. He had refused ferret Malfoy's offer of telling him what was off about her, but right now he was starting to regret it. Maybe if he had let him tell him what the problem was, he could be able to help Irene now. He couldn't do anything until she stopped refusing to tell him though. Damn it!

"Thanks for the butterbeer. We can start, you can choose either red or white pieces, it is the same for me tonight." As she said so, Irene sat on a chair in front of the table with the chess set, waiting for Ron to give her the drink and begin the match. As her love came back with the butterbeer though, she knew the chess match was going to be the last thing her mind would be focused on in the following hour.

"I will take the red pieces, ready to start Ire? I won't let you win just because you are a guest!" Saying this to try to lighten the air and to cheer her up a little, Ron, after giving her the butterbeer, sat on the chair on the opposite front of Irene, whose nervous demeanour didn't seem to have been lessened by Ron's attempt, and they started the match.

In a few minutes, Ron was stunned by how easily he was winning. Sure, he had won at times against Irene, but always after a hard fought battle of over an hour at least, never like this. It was like her mind focus was totally separated from the match. Increasingly worried for her, Ron made another move, which earned him the eating of Irene's queen, and waited for her response.

Fear, worry, hesitance, these were Irene's feelings as she struggled to make her new move, not because she was undecided on the move, her mind wasn't on the match, and she basically moved pieces almost randomly. No, she struggled to make another move because her tension was reaching a breaking point. The urge to tell him was almost unbearable, yet her fear stopped her. What should she do? Tell him and risk her heart and sanity if he rejected her? Run away and and send her heart to fuck itself definitely? Continue the match and the relationship as if nothing was happening?

She felt she couldn't choose the third option. But what about the other two? What could she do? As she struggled with her emotions, at last, while keeping a tower in her hand, overwhelmed by the stress from her contrasting feelings, she inadvertently let the tower piece fall to the ground, and it broke in countless pieces.

That was it. The breaking of the glass tower piece put an end to her struggle, she felt her mask break in shards as countless as those of the tower. Tears starting to fall from her eyes, she looked at Ron, then covered her face with her hands and as she cried, she began to say endlessly " I am sorry, I am sorry…"

He didn't think, when the tower piece fell from Irene's hands and the first tear began to wet her face, he just acted. Irene was breaking right in front of him, at last all the tension of whatever was haunting her had exploded, and he was going to do what friends, romantic or not, do, he was going to be there for her. Getting up from the chair, he went to her, brought her hands away from her face, and said "Ire, Ire, listen to me! I am sure you have done nothing so bad to be sorry of, let's move to the couch, I will get you another butterbeer and you'll tell me what's making you cry like this, ok?"

Managing to nod among her sobs, Irene took Ron's hands and let herself be brought to the couch, trying rather unsuccessfully to calm down as Ron went to get her another butterbeer. When he returned with it, she took a few sips, and afterwards, taking deep breaths, she calmed herself enough to start telling him her story.

"I am not sleeping lately, that is part of the reason I often look off to you.

I am… having nightmares."

Sitting next to her on the couch and turned towards her, Ron replied gently "Continue".

"During the war many people lost a lot. It cost my brother's a normal life, he is now in S. Mungo's psychiatric ward, you know. I go visit him every day, but he never gets better. He goes from a coma-like condition to a terrified and screaming one. In the last year of the war, he was just a kid at Hogwarts, 11 years old, the Carrows thought to use him as an example to show the older students how to properly cast the cruciatus…. a bit too much."

"Merlin ba… continue Irene."

"That year, I got home to my parents for the Christmas holidays. The last night before I had to come back to Hogwarts, a Death Eater and a mad werewolf invaded our home. I woke up hearing someone scream, and I…."

Trying to stop her tears from coming back, several deep sighs later, Irene continued "I watched from the keyhole of my bedroom as those intruders r-raped my mum and killed my parents. They wanted information from them, but my parents didn't tell them anything, e-even as they tortured them."

"My parents and my brother had their lives destroyed by those monsters. I hate them, purebloods and Slytherins, they are the ones behind the events which annihilated my whole family! I will never forget the faces of those Slytherin students, that scum as they tortured my brother and kids like him without fucking ever saying no. I bet they loved showing us "lowlife" our place! I hate them, I hate them, I HATE THEM!"

She was screaming now, the tears Irene had tried to stop had come back, falling in even more abundance. Ron just looked at her, feeling a mix of concern, horror and shock. What was he supposed to do? He wanted to hug her tightly, to comfort her, but the revelation of her hate had utterly shocked him. He had still not told her his real identity. What was she going to do if she came to know that he was a pureblood?

So Ron just watched , frozen by shock, as his new girlfriend cried relentlessy in front of him. A few minutes later, she calmed herself enough to continue "After the war, I have put my mind all into getting justice, I am in TOP, I want those monsters and their beliefs purged from our society. I drank modified sleeping potions every night to avoid the nightmares."

Looking Ron directly in the eyes, her expression softened a bit, the main emotion coming from her face turning from determination to sadness, and she continued "However, since when I started seeing you, other feelings began coming back to me. You made me feel a warmth I had not felt since before this whole nightmare began. This has made my determination, my resolve crack more and more, until I started forgetting my potions, and the nightmares, for the first time since the war, have come back."

Looking down, slightly fearful, Irene finished "S-so you know everything now. I-I understand if you don't want to see a totally fucked up person like me again. B-but if you do want to, I would like to keep seeing you".

Turning slowly her gaze towards his eyes once again, smiling just slightly she added "If you want to, I would really like to keep feeling that warm, and see where it leads us."

If Ron had been shocked and slightly scared at first, hearing of her hate, he wasn't anymore. He crushed her with a long hug, a hug which spoke a promise. He would not give up, he would not turn away from her. He didn't care if she cursed his ass into the next century when she found out his identity.

She was a broken soul, but just now, she had shown him the key to make her heart whole again. It was the warmth, the reminding of the happiness the love of others can make us feel again, despite everything we may have been trough, to make us turn away from despair, and remind us that it can still be worth it.

This was what she needed, Ron realized. She needed it like he had needed it from his family after his coma. Sure, her need was far more great and urgent, but still that was it, and he would keep giving it to her.

He would make sure to give her broken, frozen soul all the warmth it needed to heal, and then, he would play chess again with her, and tell her not to worry if a piece fell, because sometimes, a broken chess can be just the start needed in repairing our whole world.

So, still holding her tightly in a very crushing hug, he whispered a few simple words in her ear, words of a warming and cheerful fire "I'd want to even if you told me you have grown five legs as those of the spiders, and you know how much they scare me, haven't I told you?"


End file.
